Illegal miners block Black Volta
The operations of galamseyers (illegal small-scale gold miners) at Kunche in the Nadowli-Kaleo District in the Upper West Region have blocked a major portion of the Black Volta from the north to the south.
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The virtual closure of the tributary has robbed the Akosombo and Bui hydro dams of a major water source to run their turbines.
Besides that galamseyers have contaminated the fish-laden water with the poisonous cyanide, thereby killing the fishes in that part of the river and rendering the water unwholesome for inhabitants around the area.
The activities have also threatened the Wa water project — whose main operating centre is sited at Janbusu — as the truncated tributary means water cannot be supplied to the pumping site for treatment and distribution.
Eye witnesses said tonnes of soil were dumped into the river daily by a fleet of tipper trucks transporting the supposedly gold-laden earth materials of the illegal miners to the newly created boundary of the river.
Damaged environment
Following a tour of the site to see the extent of damage caused by galamsey activities, the Upper West Regional Minister, Alhaji Amin Amidu Sulemani, said, "We will do everything to ensure the situation changes immediately."
He said the level of damage was alarming enough and warranted urgent and harsh measures to eject illegal miners from the vicinity.
The minister was accompanied on his fact-finding mission by some officials of Azumah Resources Limited, one of 28 companies licensed to prospect for gold in the Upper West Region.
He said culprits caught in the galamsey work would face the law.
Security issue
Describing the situation as a security matter, Alhaji Sulemani said every necessary measure would be taken to halt the situation.
A senior geologist with Azumah Resources Limited, Mr Prince Ofori Amponsah, said the galamsey activities were a threat to aquatic life and the environment, and appealed to the government to halt the work of galamseyers.
He said the cyanide-contaminated water could not, for instance, be useful for farming activities around the banks of the river, while the truncated flow of the river remained a threat to the two major dams and consequent power supply to the entire country.