Waterbodies are threatened, galamsey must stop – Cecilia Dapaah cries out

The Minister of Sanitation and Water Resources, Cecilia Abena Dapaah, has added her voice to the call for illegal mining to end, reiterating that it is a grave threat to water supply in the country.

The sector minister, who doubles as the acting Minister for Gender, Children, and Social Protection, at a press briefing on Monday, April 11, 2022, at the Information Ministry, said the rate at which illegal mining is destroying water bodies is disturbing and must be stopped with immediate effect.

“The biggest and the most serious challenge is this phenomenon of illegal mining or galamsey on our water bodies. This has created huge problems for our water systems, and our concerns, I must stress that if we are borrowing close to USD1 billion for projects, and the raw water is contaminated, polluted for the machines to be drawing out mud, where are we going? And what are we doing to our water bodies?” she asked.

She went on to express her displeasure with the fact that those destroying the water bodies are Ghanaians.

“We have our own people mining within and around our river bodies and buffer areas, this must stop!!”

The Minister among other things said a house-to-house audit will commence in dealing with illegal connections particularly now that water is becoming scarce.