The Densu River, stretching 116 km from the Atiwa forest to the Weija Dam near Kyebi in the Eastern Region, is facing severe degradation due to intensified irresponsible mining activities in several communities.
Buildup illegal mining in areas such as Potrase, Odumase, and Apedwa Obuase within the Abuakwa South municipality has devastated waterways, supporting approximately three million residents.
The River, has impacted and transformed into a milky sludge devoid of life, and threatening both human and aquatic ecosystems.
During an investigation by the Ghana News Agency, extensive cocoa farmlands have also been devastated while the buffer zone surrounding the River has been obliterated, with illegal miners wreaking havoc across arable land.
That has prompted the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to demand collaborative action and swift legal reforms to stop the menace, restore the ecosystem, and safeguard human and aquatic life.
In an interview with the Ghana News Agency in Koforidua, Mr. Felix Addo Okyireh, the Eastern Regional Director of the Environmental Protection Agency, said that no license would be given to miners to operate close to water bodies.
“If the community, chiefs, opinion leaders, non-governmental organisations, and the government don’t take action to stop the galamseyers [illegal miners], eventually we will lose the Densu River entirely,” he said.
Adding, “When the vegetative cover is depleted, we expose the river to the whims of the weather, and if it happens …during the dry season where evaporation becomes high, the river that serves about three million people will eventually dry up, which is why there’s a need for pragmatic actions to stop the menace.”
He said combating illegal mining activities was a national security matter, as the illegal miners who destroy arable lands are often armed at the sites, while EPA officials are not trained to handle arms or control them.
“We haven’t been trained to hold a gun or how to shoot, and because illegal mining is a national security matter and should be addressed as such, if we don’t address it…we will end up losing all our water bodies” he added.
He said the young people involved in illegal mining appear to be impoverished, and cannot even afford to rent an excavator, suggesting that high-profile individuals are behind the galamsey.
He suggested that the law should be amended to allow for the investigation and prosecution of financiers of illegal activities.https://mypublisher24.com/#google_vignette
Mr Okyireh said the excavation of the watershed, bamboos, fauna, and other tree species that protect and provide canopy to the river body had been cut down.
In a separate interview with the GNA, Mr. Kaba Abakeh, Assistant Basin Officer at the Water Resources Commission in Koforidua, also shared concerns about the Densu River, reporting that the turbidity level upstream at Potrase exceeds 1,000 NTU, an indication of significant pollution linked to illegal mining activities.
He emphasized that illegal miners had altered the Densu River’s natural flow by installing water pumping changfan machines, which significantly contribute to severe pollution and noted that the Birim River faced even greater pollution problems than the Densu and other water bodies in the Eastern Region.
At Osino in the Eastern Region, the treatment plant of the Ghana Water Company Limited struggles to treat and pump water to consumers because illegal mining activities in the Birim River are causing problems, according to company officials.
To mitigate the impact, Mr. Abakeh said the commission was engaging communities where illegal mining activities were ongoing to sensitize them on the dangers and devastating effects of their activities on human life and the aquatic ecosystem.
Several reports indicate that nearly all water bodies in Ghana have been compromised by irresponsible mining activities, which have released harmful chemicals such as chromium, arsenic, lead, and mercury into the environment.
According to health experts, illegal mining activities have led to an alarming increase in birth defects among newborn babies, attributed to the exposure to these harmful chemicals during the illicit mining process.
Ghana’s Forestry Commission estimates that approximately 6.6 million hectares of the country’s 8.2 million hectares of forest trees have been depleted over the years due to indiscriminate human activities.
GNA