River Densu, all water bodies need protection

Water, they say, is life for which reason communities, local and traditional authorities and the government do everything within their resources to protect water bodies.

Over the last 10 years or so, urbanisation and population growth have combined to have a toll on our natural resources. Our country seems to be heading for gloom and doom because some people, for selfish gains, have decided not to obey the rules.

The Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) have very elaborate by-laws to deal with the indiscriminate abuse of the environment.

Not too long ago, illegal miners with their foreign collaborators, especially those from China, took the country by storm and degraded the water bodies and vegetation for gold and other minerals.

The country’s security apparatus was overwhelmed by the sheer size of the people involved in illegal mining otherwise known as galamsey. Efforts by the Ghana Chamber of Mines and the government to streamline the activities of the ‘galamseyers’, by registering them as small-scale miners, have not worked.

The illegal miners have refused the registration, claiming that the process is too demanding and cumbersome or that it is a ploy to prevent them from mining for their sustenance. Yet, they continue to abuse and pollute our remaining water bodies, since their sole aim is to find the gold ore on the bed of the rivers, no matter the cost.

It has, therefore, been a ding-dong battle between the security apparatus and the illegal miners, who now wield assault weapons with which they fight the security men sent to stop them.

The illegal miners are not the only ones to blame for the destruction of our water bodies. Buffer zones that were created in the past to protect the rivers have been encroached upon and human settlements are now very close to them, hence pollution from human activities.

Farming that was hitherto done very far from our water sources to prevent removal of the vegetation cover that preserved the water bodies is now being done close to the water sources, coupled with the fact that we now claim we are so civilised that the very taboos that protected natural gifts such as our water bodies are frowned upon and flouted with impunity.

Rivers and streams that used to even overflow their banks and that provided water all year round have now become seasonal and only come alive during the rainy season because of our abuse of the environment.

It is time for us all to put in and observe measures that would preserve what is remaining of our water bodies or else the harrowing experiences of residents of Nsawam who cannot get potable water because the River Densu has dried up will become a national catastrophe.

Everything will be gone and it will have dire consequences, even for our groundwater.