American Journal of Environment and Sustainable Development
Articles Information
American Journal of Environment and Sustainable Development, Vol.4, No.1, Mar. 2019, Pub. Date: Mar. 19, 2019
Coping Strategies to Water Hyacinth Invasion Among Riparian Communities in Ghana
Pages: 12-25 Views: 1428 Downloads: 528
Authors
[01] Emmanuel Honlah, Department of Social Sciences, Seventh-day Adventist College of Education, Agona, Ghana.
[02] Divine Odame Appiah, Department of Geography and Rural Development, Faculty of Social Sciences, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, Ghana.
[03] Alexander Yao Segbefia, Department of Geography and Rural Development, Faculty of Social Sciences, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, Ghana.
Abstract
Riparian communities are beset with a number of risks associated with water hyacinth invasion. An understanding of how they cope with these shocks is important in the formulation of policies. The aim of this study is to assess the coping mechanisms adopted by communities affected by water hyacinth invasion. The method used involved a cross-sectional research design with 305 fishermen, fish traders, farmers and boat operators who were sampled using the snowballing sampling technique in Ghana. Our results indicated that people whose livelihood activities had been affected by water hyacinth invasion relied on reactive coping mechanisms like manual removal and withdrawal from work; and recovery coping mechanisms like farming and trading to withstand the effects. These strategies, however, varied among respondents based on their location, level of education, sex and ethnicity. The study concludes that the recovery coping strategies were more beneficial to the respondents than the reactive strategies. However, we recommend that further studies are needed for effective comparisons of the results of the two categories of coping strategies to know which one yields better results for the affected people to aid in the formulations of necessary policies.
Keywords
Water Hyacinth, Coping Strategies, Riparian Communities, Jomoro District, Ghana
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