The Minister for Sanitation and Water Resources Cecilia Dapaah says she is saddened by the level of pollution of the Birim River by illegal miners in the Eastern Region.
According to the Minister, though the Kyebi stretch of the Birim River is clean, the downstream stretch from Bunso to Osino is heavily polluted increasing the turbidity of raw water to an alarming level.
The Minister said this Monday when she led experts at the water resource commission to inspect and assess the state of the Birim River and Water treatment Plants at Kyebi, Bunso, and Osino.
“So, we are here and we’ve seen the devastations of the land as well as the complete muddying of our water body called Birim. The three places we’ve been to, the projects are all on the Birim river, and as we all saw Kyebi has the cleanest water source with a turbidity of 11NTU which is within the acceptable international unit. Then we came to Bunso, and you all heard from the manager there that when they took the sample in the morning the turbidity was 1900NTU then in the afternoon -mid-morning getting to the afternoon they took and it was 330NTU. This means from the explanation they have that indeed when we were asleep some people were working on the river body hence the deepening of the muddy and rising of the turbidity levels”.
She continued “We’ve come here and am very sad. Honestly, very very sad looking at the fact that some people dared to divert the Birim river to form pools for washing their metals and using chemicals which seep through the river”.
The Minister called on all Ghanaians to support President Akufo Addo to protect river bodies in the country.
The Minister and her entourage earlier visited Okyehene at his palace.
Okyenhene advised the government to be resolute in the fight against the galamsey menace to help protect the environment and safeguard water bodies.
Source: Mybrytfmonline.com/Obed Ansah
