Sustaining Our Future by Valuing Water and Culture

Abstract

Leonardo da Vinci described water as “the driving force of all nature,” yet today, the world is facing a water crisis. If we reflect on the history of development interventions, we can see that people of various cultures have responded to similar hydrological situations by creating structures usingwhat they knew and what they had. Local solutions were efficient, and some continue to be efficient today, because people considered the limits imposed by climate and context, included members of their communities directly in water governance and passed on appropriate intangible social prac- tices down through the generations. And yet today, deforestation, unsustainable land use and poor disposal of industrial waste is polluting rivers and lakes, increasing gaps in access to safe water in many communities in Ghana and across Africa.