ARE WE RUNNING OUT OF CLEAN WATER? - FREE REPORTby Justice Obiri | 21-08-2022 19:53 |
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   Over the past years, it is gradually becoming eminent that Ghana is running out of clean water. It was not surprising for a research conducted form 2017 to 2018 by the Ghana Statistical Services and presented last month showed that 37.4% of sachet drinking water contained faecal matter. Open defecation could be attributed to this menace and it so because most of our communities are deprived of good waste management systems. We have residential houses which have no toiletry facilities, we have companies, shops, and public places which have no toiletry facilities so when nature gives a call to an individual and the person is unable to hold on till he or she reaches the home, the bush is the only way out. Most of our waterbodies are pass through bushes so when the faecal is washed into the waterbodies and this same water is collected and not well treated, the faecal matter end up in the water we drink even and possibly in our homes. It is sometimes very embarrassing to have the taps closed for weeks and the only excuse given by the Ghana Water Company would be that they are finding it difficult to treat water because the water is too polluted so it takes longer days to purify them. Such problems arise from illegal mining. Thanks to them, today in Ghana, we have rivers which have colours! River water is colourless by nature but due to consistent mining of minerals in them, today they have colours and have polluted to the maximum core. The government have setup commissions upon commissions to help fight this mining problem but the irony is that most of this same miners have legit certificates of clearance from this same governments to mine when they claim they are fighting it. So if a country degenerates to such trash, who is to blame? Attached to this report are images of Daboase Cluster of rivers, it is an eyesore, in one of the images, you will see on the right bottom the logo of the ministry of lands and mining, they can use drones to take such images but what are they doing to stop and salvage the situation? This is a $64,000 question which can never be answered. There evidence of military and police personnel who take bribe from miners and allow them to continue working when they have been given a mandate to stop this people. We all contribute to this disturbing problem, the international citizens are not left out, there is also enough evidence to show that mining has backing by foreign nationals, something which cannot be in their country, they see to it that it is done here. Whether illegal or legal, the bottom line is that mining is destroying the goodness of my country, and for that, no amount of money can compensate for it. A few days ago, tariffs on water was increased, meaning as citizens we need to pay more for water which we do not have a 90% assurance that is safe and potable for consumption, so we are running out of water like a tree being fell and we are dying from the unsafe state of the water being produced to our homes. I can only encourage that we keep to the basic things that makes living a success, destroying the environment to make money is not the only way out, we can learn from other countries who see it necessary to preserve the environment for the sake of a better tomorrow, it can be done only if we are willing to change our ways of doing things. Green Cheers! |
