This episode looks at the successful and ongoing story of the Ghana Permaculture Institute and their work in creating region-wide economic development using permaculture strategies. Dr. Paul Yeboah has not only restored the fertility and the water table of his 30 acre demonstration site, but he has created a processing system for a number of local crops to add value that is then returned to the farmers, improving their livelihoods and basic standard of living. He has 10,000 farmers growing moringa, 3,000 producing honey, as well as many others growing other fragrant plants for essential oils that he is processing and selling on the local and global markets. His economic organization is making a huge impact and now the government of Ghana is paying him to advocate for permaculture and promote the economic and ecological models he has pioneered. This is a success story with lots of wisdom to share from West Africa.

WEBSITE
permacultureghana.wordpress.com
ghanapermaculturei.wix.com/permaculture

BIO:
Paul Yeboah, is an educator, farmer, permaculturist, community developer, and social entrepreneur. He is the founder and coordinator of the Ghana Permaculture Institute and Network in Techiman, Ghana, West Africa. It is located in the Brong-Ahafo Region of Ghana. The purpose of the Institute is to build and maintain a stable food system, to take care of the local ecosystems, and to improve the quality of life in the rural areas. The GPN trains students and community in sustainable ecological farming techniques. They support projects throughout Ghana; women groups, micro-finance projects; teach growing Moringa; mushroom production; alley cropping, food forests development and Agroforestry.

Image: Flickr

The post Dr. Paul Yeboah: Region-wide Permaculture Economic Development appeared first on P2P Foundation.

The campaign against prepaid water meters was initiated by the Water Citizens Network of Ghana after it identified the issue as a serious threat to the human right to water and to public health in Ghana. Media campaigns, lobbying of the legislative branch of Government, picketing and demonstrations helped defeat three government attempts to install the meters.

Though there was no fierce opposition to the meters in the beginning, within five months of their installation, growing complaints from customers led to resistance. The government agency that had enthusiastically sold the idea to Ghanaians then felt prompted to go to court in 2004 to stop the initiative, though not on the question of human rights but on contractual breaches. Following this action, GWCL quickly moved to replace all prepaid water meters in the project area with conventional meters.

In February 2014, discussions about prepaid water meters resurfaced again in the media when the Public Utility Regulatory Commission endorsed a proposal by GWCL to begin another pilot installation of prepaid water meters in selected communities. Yet again, despite the several challenges, civil society managed to put the brakes on the process. What turned the tide was the intense media campaign waged by civil society – by groups like ISODEC and the Water Citizens Network of Ghana.

When the public thought that the policy had been put to rest it was a surprise when in July of 2015 there was a renewed push for the implementation again with much more vigor than in the previous two instances. The Acting Managing Director of the GWCL announced in July that all was set for another rollout of the prepaid meters in August, 2015, but this was again successfully resisted with the help of the media and the sector’s oversight parliamentary committee.

“The water citizens network of Ghana has used effective and successful  campaign strategies despite limited resources to challenge pre-paid meters and impressively succeeded in stopping the government three times.”

– Satoko Kishimoto

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Transformative Cities’ Atlas of Utopias is being serialized on the P2P Foundation Blog.

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The post Accra and Tema, Ghana: Struggle Against Prepaid Water Meters appeared first on P2P Foundation.