We should no longer toy with ‘galamsey’
Ghana is a country blessed with numerous fresh water bodies, with the Volta basin, including its tributaries, covering about 70 per cent of the entire country. Complacency or ignorance are, however, making us wish away this enviable blessing.
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It is not for nothing that the maxim goes: ‘Water is life’. Even W. H. Auden, the English-American love poet of old, alluded to this when he said: “Thousands have lived without love but not one without water."
Indeed, many maxims point out the importance of water to life. certainly water has no substitute.
If we know this fact and we are fortunate as a country to have been blessed with such abundant fresh water resources, why are we allowing illegal mining (‘galamsey’) to rob us of the blessing? Why are we speedily allowing greed and the parochial interests of a few citizens to rob us of our very lives and those of future generations?
Ghana is well known for its dexterity in peace-keeping operations in war-torn countries all over the world. Do we not have a team combatant enough to defeat this enemy known as galamsey? Or perhaps has galamsey already become like the proverbial grassland which overnight metamorphoses into an impenetrable forest and, therefore, too difficult to surmount?
Thankfully, we have a new administration and perhaps we can keep hope alive that a comprehensive plan will be put in place to end galamsey once and for all or bring it to its barest minimum.
My main intention for writing this article is to bring to bear the unprintable levels of turbidity being recorded by the Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL) at some of its key abstraction points in a bid to let us know that Ghana can no longer toy with the fight against illegal mining in our water bodies.
What is turbidity?
Turbidity in simple terms as described by water quality experts refers to the clearness or cloudiness of a water sample and it is measured in Nephelometric Turbidity Units (NTU) with an instrument called nephelometer or turbidimeter.
Although turbidity can be caused by factors such as waste discharge, algae growth, urban runoff and other unorthodox practices in and around water bodies, this article deals with turbidity caused by illegal mining in some of the rivers where GWCL abstracts water for treatment.
Turbidity values at Kibi
One of GWCL’s treatment plants in the Eastern Region is located at Kibi where the company takes raw water from the Birim River for treatment. The current plant was designed to handle turbidity values of up to 200 NTU only.
Between 2006 and 2009 when there was no galamsey activity in the river, the turbidity level was less than 7.5 NTU. However, when galamsey activities started at the abstraction point in 2010, the turbidity level sky-rocketed to 985 NTU in 2011 until the plant could no longer handle the level of pollution.The GWCL had to suspend operations at the plant for a whole year for a new plant (the current one) to be installed before operations could resume.
Turbidity values at the point where the water is taken for treatment was about 1600 NTU around August 2016, a situation which once again compelled the GWCL to suspend operations at Kibi at that time. Currently, water treatment at the plant is intermittent depending on the turbidity values recorded. That is how bad the situation is.
Turbidity values at Daboase
The Pra River is the raw water source for the Daboase treatment plant which supplies potable water to Takoradi and its environs.
The raw water quality of the Pra River started deteriorating in 2009 mainly as a result of illegal mining in the river.Though the designed value of turbidity for the plant is 100 NTU, turbidity levels increased more than 400 per cent above the designed value, just two years after galamsey activities started around the abstraction point. The turbidity values being recorded currently at the plant is above 1,261 NTU, over a whopping 1000 per cent above the designed value of the plant!
For how long should we allow the greedy few to destroy resources that belong to the whole nation?
Turbidity values at Odaso
The Odaso plant treats water taken from River Oda to feed the people of Obuasi and its environs.
Galamsey activities became more prominent at Odaso around 2011, causing turbidity levels to rise from 59 NTU in 2010 to 375 NTU in 2011. After just one year, the turbidity level at the Odaso treatment plant rose to an unprecedented level of over 2,994 NTU.
There was, however, a slight improvement in the raw water quality between 2013 and 2014 as a result of intensive security interventions by the Obuasi Municipal security apparatus against galamsey activities.
Unfortunately, the centre could not hold for long. The security intervention was just a nine-day wonder. The situation degenerated shortly afterwards, causing turbidity levels to surge from 1,760 NTU in 2015 to 3,842 NTU in 2016.
Meanwhile, this plant was designed to handle a turbidity level of100 NTU. This means the plant is operating way beyond its capacity, about 3,800 per cent above its capacity. Amazing, isn’t it?
With these high raw water turbidity levels being recorded, it is important to note that the World Health Organisation says drinking water should not have turbidity of more than five NTU.
The good news is that the GWCL is able to meet this standard and even performs better. However, in meeting the standard, GWCL spends outrageously huge sums of foreign currency to buy water treatment chemicals.
What is even more precarious is that the ‘galamseyers’ use heavy metals such as mercury and cyanide in their operations and the GWCL has begun recording some levels of heavy metals in some raw water sources.
Although the values being recorded now are within manageable limits, we should take note that if the situation does not improve soon, the nation could be in for serious trouble.
Let the powers that be ensure effective enforcement and compliance with environmental policies, laws, regulations and standards within the country.
We entreat our chiefs, queenmothers and other traditional rulers to also rise up to the fight.
Ghana let us arise and save our water bodies from galamsey!
The writer is the Regional Communications Manager
for GWCL, Accra West Region
Email: [email protected]