Enhancing groundwater governance through experimental games in Ghana

Thousands of farmers living in the Keta and Anloga districts of Ghana (Figure 1) depend on groundwater from the Keta strip for producing vegetables and other food crops for consumption and income generation. The Keta strip lies between a salty lagoon (the Keta lagoon) and the sea (the Gulf of Guinea), along Ghana’s eastern coast. The two districts fall within the dry equatorial climatic region, the driest part of the country. The main occupations are farming, fishing and trading. Year-round farming uses groundwater from shallow unconfined aquifers within depths of about 15 meters. Crops grown include carrots, tomatoes, pepper, okra, onion, lettuce, potatoes, maize, and cassava. Farming in the Keta and Anloga districts is impossible without irrigation because of relatively low rainfall (about 800 mm), a long dry season of about six months, long dry spells within the rainfall season, high annual evaporation (about 1800 mm) and sandy soils.