GALAMSEY OPERATORS POLLUTE PRA RIVER (Page 21)

Story: Kwame Asiedu Marfo, Daboase

ILLEGAL small-scale gold mining operators, known as ‘galamsey’, at the banks of the Pra River, have silted up the water intake point of the river where the Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL) pumps raw water for treatment and distribution at its Daboase headworks.
The GWCL treats six million gallons of water each day at the Daboase head works in the Mpohor-Wassa East District in the Western Region for distribution to Sekondi/Takoradi.
As a result of that, the company has to hire people to clear the silt from the water’s intake point almost everyday, to prevent the shutdown of the headworks.
Apart from the silting up of the water intake point, the illegal gold miners have also destroyed the water embankment which diverts water from the river to the intake point for pumping to the head works for treatment.
The irony of the situation is that the illegal miners use poisonous chemicals such as mercury to process the gold in the river, and this is likely to pollute the river.
Machines used for the processing of gold were found on the river banks, while the illegal gold miners fled into the bush when they saw newsmen.
A number of people, mostly women, who had been hired by the GWCL, were seen busily de-silting the water intake point to allow enough water to be pumped into the head works for treatment and distribution.
The Regional Principal Chemist of the GWCL, Mr Philip Dwamena-Boateng, stated that the problem started about three years ago, but had since been intensified each year.
He said the activities of the illegal gold miners had disturbed the water as it had made it murky and the GWCL had to use more chemicals to treat the water, “thereby increasing the cost of production”.
Mr Dwamena-Boateng stated that the company was taking steps to monitor the water quality by taking samples for regular analysis to find out the mercury content.
“They are using more chemicals which are likely to pollute the water”, he stressed.
He said the embankment of the river would be reconstructed to store enough water at the intake point.