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Small-scale gold mining pollutes River Pra
Beposo (W/R) April 12, Ghanadot/GNA -
Inhabitants of Beposo and its environs, in the newly created
Shama District are faced with the risk of mercury and gas
poisoning as a result of the activities of small-scale gold
miners in the River Pra.
These communities rely on the Pra for their source of
drinking water and also fish in it.
A gang of small-scale miners have been operating along the
course of the River and thereby polluting it.
In an interview with the Ghana News Agency, the Western
Regional Director of the Environmental Protection Agency
(EPA) Ms Irene Heathcote said no one had a permit to operate
a mine of any sort in the Pra River and their activities
were dangerous to nearby communities.
She said the miners used mercury in their activities adding
that if it entered the food chain it could cause cancer in
humans.
She explained that mercury residue in sediments on which the
fishes and lobsters fed could poison people, who ate them,
while those who relied on the River as their sources of
drinking water were also at risk.
"No one has a permit to operate in the Pra and the law
enforcement agencies must assist the District Assembly to
remove them from the area."
She said mercury oxide and other chemicals used for the
final extraction of the gold, was harmful; not only for
those involved, but others who breathed in the gas during
the refining of the metal.
"The act is of concern to us as people drink, bath and eat
fishes and lobsters from this River and it must not be
allowed to be polluted," she said.
A visit by the GNA to the Township revealed that each gang
made up of eight men, dug the riverbed for the sand and
washed it on their "floating improvised equipment".
The equipment include electric generators, barrels, water
pumping machines and slipper mats used for washing the gold.
The gangs, who were formerly operating at Daboase in the
Mpohor Wassa East, were chased away by the Ghana Water
Company Limited (GWCL) in February 2008 for polluting the
water at its intake treatment plant at Daboase.
They, therefore, moved to settle at Beposo and Dunkwa both
in the Shama District. They operate in shifts of four per
each gang during the day and at night from Tuesday to
Thursday.
Among the communities likely to suffer from the activities
of the gangs are Bukorkope, Shama Beach, Atwereboanda,
Bosomdo and Shama Krobo.
GNA
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