It comes as a bit of a shock to me to realise that there is a ‘Water Research Institute’ in Ghana.
For many of our mighty rivers have fallen foul of the galamsey operators. I speak of Tano. Birem. Densu. Offin. Prah. Ankobrah. And many others which, like those named, have dried up in part, are currently drying up or are in danger of drying up.
All around the country, we see a relentless and conscienceless assault upon our water bodies by the galamsey operators. We see rivers turned upside down by excavators that dig up riverbeds in order that the sand and gravel the riverbeds contain might be panned or washed in search of gold.
With such a devastation of our water resources taking place, one would have thought that our Water Research Institute would be issuing constant report on how our water resources are being ruined. If this were in some other countries, we could expect, in the face of such a national disaster, that the research institute set up to study the quality of the water in our rivers and streams and tell the public what changes were being observed in it by scientists, on a monthly, weekly or even daily basis, depending on how seriously the water quality was deteriorating.
Has the Water Research Institute being doing this? No!
The last report I can find in which anyone from the Institute said anything note-worthy to the public about our water quality was almost exactly one year ago. On 16 May 2016, Graphic.com.gh reported that:
QUOTE: Research conducted by the Water Research Institute (WRI) of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) has established that Ghana’s water treatment systems are incapable of removing algae toxins. Briefing the Daily Graphic on the report, the Director of the Institute, Dr Joseph Addo Ampofo, explained that Ghana had the conventional type of water treatment system that was unable to remove the algae toxins.
“He said that most of the sources of fresh water drawn to the treatment plants were high in algae growth. He, therefore, called for an immediate review of the country’s water purification systems to ensure that the toxins were removed, adding that algae were harmful to human health.
“Dr Ampofo said the algae infestation was the result of human activities such as illegal mining (galamsey), farming along river banks and bathing in the rivers. He urged all stakeholders, including the Water Resources Commission and the public, to do their part in protecting water sources from algae growth. He said the less the algae growth, the less the toxins to be removed.
“He [explained that] although the current water purification mechanism used by the Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL) met World Health Organisation (WHO) guidelines, the guidelines were accepted at a time that Ghana did not have problems with algae growth in water sources. He explained that the GWCL only tested the treated water for bacteria, not toxins from algae, and that was why the company said its water was potable.
“If you look at the water in the Weija Dam, for instance, gradually the water is increasing in blue-green algae. With such water, if you want to treat it for drinking, you must also take into consideration the removal of the algae because algae toxins can cause kidney, liver, nervous system and heart problems…..We do not have that technology for our water treatment now,”. UNQUOTE
In the one year that has elapsed since Dr Ampofo was good enough to brief the Daily Graphic on the dangers caused to our water by algae toxins, the Institute, as far as I can discover, has not made any more public pronouncements on the issue. Bur scientists ought to appreciate that in our part of the world, politicians tend not to be able to fully grasp issues that constitute a danger to the public. Scientists ought to take it upon themselves to engage in information-sharing, especially where public health is threatened by ignorance.
The Institute has not been doing this. But now, according to Joy FM, the Institute has come out of the woodwork. QUOTE: “The Water Research Institute (WRI) of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) says government will be effective at monitoring activities of small scale miners if it legalizes galamsey…. At a media encounter on galamsey held by the International Association for Impact Assessment [on 4 May 2017] WRI Director, Professor Osmund Ansa-Asare appealed to government to legalise the practice instead of clamping down on it.
“The argument by WRI is in sharp contradiction to the army of critics who have been calling for a complete ban of the activity. Some media and religious groups have been pressurizing the government to end the practice because of the damage it has done to the country’s environment. Many of Ghana’s water bodies have been destroyed. The Tano River in the Brong Ahafo Region, that serves several communities, has dried up for the first time in 40 years. The Brim and Densu Rivers in the Eastern Region and Ankobrah River in the Western Region have been muddied to an extent that [it] will cost the Ghana Water Company more money for treatment before consumption. The country’s forest reserves continue to be destroyed due to the indiscriminate and illegal mining by some citizens.” UNQUOTE.
Indeed, Prof Ansah-Asare’s views are extremely naive, to say the least. The evidence before our eyes makes it abundantly clear that the Ghanaian galamseyers and their Chinese patrons have absolutely no scruples in ignoring all the laws of the country, the laws of decency and common sense in their quest for gold. For our ancestors dug for gold and won so much of it that our country was named ‘The Gold Coast’ by the Europeans who came here. But the traditional methods used to dig gold did not end in rivers and streams being deliberately destroyed. The pits used to dig gold were often far away from rivers and streams, and their mouths were not wide enough to scar the land in the way that the huge open pits and craters dug by the galamseyers have done to our land at the present time. People deliberately pollute river and stream water with poisonous mercury and cyanide, and you want to be ‘monitored’?. The person has defined himself already as a wicked person and will either kill or maim a ‘monitor’ if the ‘monitor’ tries to obstruct his operations. This has, in fact, happened in communities where the people have thought it necessary to confront the galamseyers.
At best, the galamseyers will try to bribe Ansah-Asare’s so-called ‘monitors’. The minister of Land and Mineral Resources was recently forced to discipline on the spot, nine ‘monitors’ whom he discovered to have ignored their duties, when he paid a surprise visit some areas devastated by galamseyers.
It was extremely unwise of Prof Ansah-Asare to ignore the fact that the galamseyers have challenged the government of Ghana to ban their activities if it dares. The situation cannot be dealt with academic theories about smuggling and legalisation. It is a test of strength between the elected government of Ghana, and a group of insolent, machismo-fired individuals, to whom community and traditional morality mean nothing. How can one monitor murderers or rapists? Are galamseyers not murdering our land and its rivers and streams?
– www.cameronduodu.com
By Cameron Duodu