Ghana is on the brink of a water catastrophe. More than 60 percent of its surface water is now polluted, prompting the Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL) to resort to synthetic polymers typically reserved for industrial wastewater to clean natural water for human consumption.
This disturbing trend, according to Bright Simons, vice president in charge of research at IMANI Centre for Policy and Education, is a direct consequence of how water is valued in Ghana’s economic and regulatory systems.
“We propose the AQUAurus protocol as an approach of dramatically re-valuing water resources in Ghana. We believe that this is an urgent measure to avert the massive catastrophe on the way”
Bright Simons, Vice President of IMANI
Simons believes the issue lies not just with pollution from mining, agrochemical runoff, and urban waste, but with how the state treats water as a free commodity.
GWCL pays nothing for the raw water it extracts and sells. Simons sees this as a critical flaw – one that must be urgently corrected through a sweeping reform dubbed the AQUAurus protocol.
Simons explained that GWCL has neither the financial “incentive” nor capacity to invest in protecting water sources. With tariffs heavily regulated and revenue minimal, the utility has no leverage to take serious environmental action.
Instead, it relies on security services to protect water bodies, a strategy Simons said is ineffective and unsustainable. The proposed AQUAurus protocol seeks to disrupt this structure entirely by assigning “real economic value” to water and enforcing payment by the very institutions that profit from its sale.
Water and Gold Mining
Simons highlighted the booming surface gold mining industry as a major beneficiary of water mismanagement
“The zero cost of water has boosted surface mining and enabled Ghana to outstrip countries that are yet to allow the kind of indiscriminate open-pit, alluvial, and other forms of surface mining seen in Ghana. Essentially, free water is subsidising part of gold production costs”
Bright Simons, Vice President of IMANI
“Nearly 80 percent of gold produced in Ghana comes from surface mining,” and almost half of that is processed by diverting rivers and streams, entirely free of charge.
Only large, technologically advanced mines build proper water treatment facilities, while the rest exploit natural watercourses at no cost, further contaminating the national supply and accelerating degradation.
“AQUAurus (‘Water is Gold’) will change this by immediately empowering the Water Resources Commission (WRC) to charge GWCL for water taken from large bodies of water”
Bright Simons, Vice President of IMANI
The AQUAurus Protocol
Under the AQUAurus framework, GWCL would pay WRC based on the actual volume of usable water drawn from polluted sources. This payment system would give WRC both the resources and incentive to invest in enforcement and protection.
Simons said this could include “helicopter patrols” and other serious surveillance mechanisms, noting that current drone efforts are ineffective due to the “lack of rapid response capability.”
“The massive prices will cause an uproar. Water policy will finally become political. The middle-classes shall stop taking the precious fluid for granted”
Bright Simons, Vice President of IMANI
Simons admitted that the proposed pricing model would lead to a tripling of water prices in Ghana. However, a “lifeline tariff” would protect the poorest. He argued that this bold pricing shift is necessary to force a national conversation about water’s value and to disrupt entrenched practices that treat water as limitless and free.
The resulting public discourse, he believes, will shift water from a neglected utility issue into a central policy concern. This he explained would introduce the conversation on ownership, investment, and citizen monitoring of water and water bodies in the country.
“Different concessionaires will invest close to the frontline to secure water bodies they’ve leased from WRC against galamseyers, reckless miners, and other polluters”
Bright Simons, Vice President of IMANI
Simons proposed a tokenised water ownership system that would allow citizens to invest in specific water bodies. Using satellite and remote-sensing technology, the quality and volume of water within designated concessions could be monitored in real time.
Tokens would be priced according to quality, creating market-based incentives for conservation. These concessions, he said, would be leased out to contractors who could manage, protect, and resell water under a regulated framework that rewards stewardship and penalises degradation.
“The tragedy of water commons can be reversed. But we must ACT NOW. Latest by tomorrow morning”
Bright Simons, Vice President of IMANI
As the new government takes the reins amid rising climate challenges, Simons’s proposals are landing at a critical moment.
With Ghana’s freshwater supply shrinking and the nation’s gold rush accelerating unchecked, the AQUAurus protocol may offer one of the last real chances to rebalance national priorities before irreversible damage is done.
