The Ghana Water Company has told Citi News that the recent fight against illegal small-scale mining popularly known as ‘galamsey’ is yielding positive results for quality water production in the country.
It says stakeholders must not relent in their efforts to address the galamsey menace to sustain the production of quality water for Ghanaians.
Prior to the launch of the campaign against galamsey, most of the company’s production plants had been shut down due to difficulties in treating the heavily polluted water for subsequent distribution to homes.
According to the Head of Corporate Communications at the Ghana Water Company Limited, Stanley Martey, the company has seen great improvement in its water production and supply following a massive campaign against the illegal practice.
He noted that the situation can be made even better when the fight against galamsey is sustained.
“We’ve seen some improvement and we are happy about the campaign against galamsey activities. I hope that it will all be sustained…If it is not sustained and this galamsey activity continues or start again, we are going to face the same challenge.”
Mr. Martey also called for the enforcement of regulations on illegal mining to protect the country’s water resources to ensure that the progress made is not reversed.
The Kyebi, Dabuasi and the Odaso water treatment plants which were shut down due to galamsey activities have been reopened to serve their respective catchment areas.
Several water bodies across the country have been under severe threat as the menace of galamsey heightened but reports suggest that after efforts by the Media, NGOs and government, the level of destruction of the resources have at least not worsened.
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By: Jonas Nyabor/citifmonline.com/Ghana