Former EPA Boss: Blue Water Guards Initiative Duplicates Existing Efforts

Former Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) CEO, Dr. John Kingsley Krugu, has criticized the Blue Water Guards Initiative, arguing that it creates unnecessary overlap with existing institutions already responsible for protecting Ghana’s water bodies.

Dr. Krugu recalled that the previous administration trained Water Guards to combat illegal mining in water bodies, but these individuals were ultimately ineffective due to institutional challenges.

He emphasized that established bodies like the Water Resources Commission, Minerals Commission, and the navy already have mandates related to water body protection. Training another group as Blue Water Guards, he contended, would simply lead to a duplication of efforts and potential conflicts of authority.

“Under the previous government, Water Guards were trained… As a matter of fact, those Water Guards never got to the field. It was about an institutional issue because you have the naval commander train them, then you have the Water Resources Commission, then you have the Minerals Commission… all of that did not amount to anything,” Dr. Krugu explained.

He concluded that creating a new, similar initiative is not the right approach.