BIRIM RIVER BLEEDS FROM POISONOUS CHEMICALS (PAGE 35, JUNE 24, 2010)

THE Birim River, rich with abundant minerals such as gold and diamond as well as a green vegetation along its banks surrounded by thick forests, has for many years remained the pride and identity of people of Okyeman.
However, today the river is not only bleeding from heavy toxic chemicals such as cyanide and mercury, but is also on the brink of being pushed rapidly to extinction.
A visit to Apapam, Adadaetam, Hawinase through Kyebi, Pando, Asikam, Adukrom, Asiakwa, Bunso, Osino, Abompe, Ankaase, Akyem Mampong, Anyinam, Morso, Akrofufu, Akwaboaso, Asunafo to Akyem Oda will reveal clearly the extent to which the quality of water sourced from the Birim River and treated by the Ghana Water Company (GWC) has been seriously polluted, making the river to always appear brownish red and distasteful for human consumption.
Taking its source from the Atiwa Forest Range, the Birim River is gradually drying up due to the activities of illegal miners, who are mostly armed with sophisticated fire arms.
Without any fear, these illegal miners either mine close to the banks or right in the Birim River or sometimes divert its course to enable them to extract minerals from the basin of the river.
Once a good source of drinking water for the people, today the Birim River has become a source of various water-borne diseases for the people living along its banks, especially pregnant women and children who on a daily basis drink from it, since they can never afford a sachet or bottle of water.
Like many other important rivers that once served various communities across the country but are no more in existence, the persistent shrinking of the Birim River is projected to pose an acute water shortage to inhabitants in communities along its banks in the future.
The impunity with which the galamsey operators mine close to the river and sometimes mount canoe-like structures to mine right in the middle of the river, degrading and depleting forest covers and large tracts of farmland close to the banks of the river, has incessantly exposed this source of drinking water to heavy toxic materials such as cyanide and mercury which the illegal miners use to extract gold and diamond from the river and its environs.
Environmental risk
This endless siege from the devastating activities of illegal miners, who are believed to have migrated from Akwatia where similar land degradation and minerals were plundered, is posing serious environmental and health risks to the communities that live along its banks and use the river as their main source of water.
Contrary to the saying that healthy rivers are very important part of every community’s heritage and identity as they serve as good drinking water for the people in the communities, the important role played in the past by the Birim River for the people has now been destroyed.
Notwithstanding the heavy pollution and the destruction, the Birim River is presently the raw water source for four different treatment plants of the Ghana Water Company (GWC) at Kyebi, Osino, Anyinam and Bunso, and millions of gallons of water is pumped to the people in the Akyem area daily.
The GWC finds it extremely expensive treating water sourced from the river for human consumption. Besides, the activities of illegal miners close to the banks of the river and sometimes right in the river has also on several occasion compelled the GWC to shut down its water treatment plants at Kyebi and Bunso.
It has been reported that on many occasions the company was compelled to treat the water in its polluted state, it was often forced to pump the treated water to waste, since the treated water never conformed to drinking water standards of the World Health Organization (WHO), thus incurring liabilities in the waste of energy, manpower and chemical.
During a REGSEC meeting with chiefs from the Akyem area at Koforidua on March 20, this year, the Regional Director of the Quality Assurance of the GWC, Mr Moses Painstil, disclosed that due to the extent of pollution of the Birim River, the cost of treating water was three times more than it used to be in the past when the river used to be clean.
He indicated that the galamsey operators mined deep and wide pits, from which the liquid waste often seeped to the intake points where dams had been constructed for abstraction and subsequent treatment. This situation has left the GWC helpless in the face of the boldness, lawlessness and violence on the part of the galamsey operators who seem unstoppable by the security forces or the Akyem Abuakwa Mining Monitoring Team, which has been formed to check mining operations in the Akyem Abuakwa Traditional Area.
The question therefore is for how long will the activities of illegal miners continue to threaten the survival of the Birim River and the long-term interest of the people in Okyeman, all in the name of job creation for the unemployed youth?
Agreeable, the advent of the galamsey operation, as it is reported, has created about 500, 000 jobs to the jobless youth, but it seems the short-term gain of galamsey for a few greedy, lawless and violent individuals, including some chiefs, has taken precedence over the long-term impact of numerous benefits of the Birim River and other natural resources on the people’s living standard.
Good drinking water denied
Hundreds of thousands of people in the Akyem area, for a very long time and through no fault of theirs, have been denied access to good drinking water and are currently paying a heavy price for the activities of illegal miners, who according to reports, were sometimes backed by some of “unscrupulous chiefs in the Akyem areas”.
These chiefs, in a bid to enrich their individual pockets, are said to often accept money from the galamsey operators and release land to them to carry out their nefarious operations, overlooking the immense dangers illegal mining could pose to forest cover, water bodies, the environment and the people, today and posterity.
It is against this background that the Okyenhene, Osagyefuo Amoatia Ofori Panin, called for the arrest and prosecution of any chief who will be found guilty of promoting illegal mining in their respective areas to face the full rigours of the law to serve as a deterrent to others.
According to him, any traditional leader who would be found to have collected money and given out land to the illegal miners to operate in the area should be made to face the law without any fear or favour.
I recall him saying that “If you, as chiefs, allow poverty to compel you to give out land to selfish individuals to destroy our forest reserves, water bodies and the ecology, at the expense of the people and posterity, then you must be made to be accountable for your selfish actions by facing the laws of the land.”
According to the Okyenhene, if the environmental laws and regulations in the country were to be respected and promoted, then those found guilty of flouting them, including himself, his children, sub-chiefs and members of royal families, should not be spared but be made to face the law.
For this call from the Okyenhene to be practical and purposeful, the readiness and commitment of the government to accord a high priority to environmental crime in the country could significantly curb the reckless depletion and plundering of natural resources as well as the pollution of the Birim River and other water bodies in the country.
The arrest and prosecution of those who flout environmental laws and regulations, without any fear or favour, indeed must be seen and felt in all the mining communities to drive home the determination of state institutions to stamp out activities that pose a threat to the environment.
Police/military swoop
It would be recalled that a joint military/police swoop on Kyebi and Asikam to stop illegal mining in the areas late in 2009, led to the arrest of over 90 illegal miners and the confiscation of their machines including excavators and pumps.
These illegal miners and their machines were taken to the Eastern Regional Police Headquarter only to be released a few days later, a situation that could partly be blamed for the impunity and violent behaviour of illegal miners in their operations.
 Moreover, the inability of the various environmental agencies such as the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources, the Ministry of Environment, Science and Technology, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Forestry Commission and the Minerals Commission to educate the communities on the dangers of illegal mining as well as monitor the activities of galamsey operators  to ensure that environmental laws and regulations are not flouted has also partly contributed to the impunity with which galamsey operators carry out their activities.
To reverse the trend, the time has come for the government to adequately resource all the environmental enforcement agencies to enable them to effectively tackle the incessant growing threats to the Birim River and other natural resources in the region and the country as a whole.
In the opinion of Okyenhene, the allocation of the needed funds to these environmental agencies will boost their capacity to curb the activities of illegal chainsaw and galamsey operators bent on depleting forests and polluting water bodies.