Pressure Group, OccupyGhana believes Ghana could be heading towards food insecurity as a result of the devastating effect of illegal mining commonly known as galamsey.
The Pressure Group in another reminder to President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo dated October 10 said the actions of ‘galamsey’ operators are decimating Ghana, and the consequences are dire.
According to the group, “the country could be heading towards critical food insecurity at this rate!”
“This irresponsible mining of gold is causing and going to cause even more poisoning of our rivers with mercury and cyanide, rampant deforestation, and loss of our sources of drinking water,” said OccupyGhana in an open letter to President Akufo-Addo.
It explained that the use of mercury or cyanide to extract gold from the ore has terrible effects.
“A good example of the danger is shown by work done on samples from the Bonsa River near Tarkwa Nsuaem by Dr Abena Obiri-Yeboah and her group at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi (Obiri-Yeboah, Scientific African, Sept 2021). Turbidity levels – a sign of particulate contaminants – of samples from the river measured 155.75 NTU downstream to 207.0 NTU upstream, they cited.
Meanwhile, the World Health Organisation recommends a turbidity level of 5 NTU in water that is used for drinking and cooking. Mean mercury levels were measured at (0.045 ± 0.0062 mg/l) downstream, (0.061 ± 0.0227 mg/l) midstream, and (0.049 ± 0.0138 mg/l) upstream. These numbers exceed the Ghana Environmental Protection Authority set level of 0.0010mg/l,” they added.
The pressure group further stated that the activities of the illegal miners do not only destroy river bodies but extend to farmlands thus the loss of topsoil which makes “farming on these lands after galamsey near impossible.”
OccupyGhana said the technical information the President has been updated with should be a bother to him and his government, giving him sleepless nights to push him to act on the menace.
By Vincent Kubi