The impact of climate change on water quality

“Water, in its various occurrences, management and uses, is an essential component of human development and is a crosscutting factor in current development priorities driving Ghana’s goal of achieving sustainable development” – Ghana National Water Policy, 2007 (p.6). The availability of this indispensable resource, however, now depends heavily on climate change. In fact, experts predict that by the Year 2100 there would be increased water availability in moist tropics and high latitudes, with decreasing water availability and increasing drought in mid-latitudes and semi-arid low latitudes.
“Water, in its various occurrences, management and uses, is an essential component of human development and is a crosscutting factor in current development priorities driving Ghana’s goal of achieving sustainable development” – Ghana National Water Policy, 2007 (p.6).
The availability of this indispensable resource, however, now depends heavily on climate change. In fact, experts predict that by the Year 2100 there would be increased water availability in moist tropics and high latitudes, with decreasing water availability and increasing drought in mid-latitudes and semi-arid low latitudes.
Affirming the above assertion in a paper on  Water Safety, Climate Change and Integrated Water Resources Management  that was presented at Mole XXI, Ms Adwoa Paintsil of the Water Resources Commission (WRC) observed that “the changes in global climate that are occurring as a result of the accumulation of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere will affect patterns of freshwater availability and will alter the frequencies of floods and droughts .”
The attention of the organizers of Mole XXI was engaged not only by the mere availability of water in future. The quality of water that will be available was very much of concern too. This was because climate model simulations and other analyses suggest that total flows, probabilities of extreme high or low flow conditions, seasonal runoff regimes, gr…