The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Water Resources Commission have called for the immediate arrest of financiers backing illegal miners operating in the Densu River at Potrase near Kyebi in the Abuakwa South Municipality of the Eastern Region.
The Densu River, which supplies water to dozens of upstream communities and over 1.5 million residents in Accra who rely on the Weija Dam, is under severe threat from illegal mining activities.
These miners have blocked and diverted the river’s flow, jeopardising water access for many.
Speaking to Channel One News about this alarming situation, the Eastern Regional Director of the EPA, Addo Okyere, described the destruction as a national threat and urged immediate action to address the issue.
“The Potrase situation is bad and then I think I won’t mince words. The situation is bad. The situation is bad in the sense that the Densu River which hasn’t offended any mining company or any galamseyer is now being attacked.
“This river serves a lot of people in the country from the Eastern region or the Akyem area through Nsawam up to the Greater Accra is now being attacked by these galamsey operators and the fear is that the river may dry up during dry the season or now that it is getting polluted. It has become turbid. And if pragmatic action is not taken now, we may cry over the Densu River.”
Mr. Addo Okyere added that the arrest must go beyond the mere labourers to the actual financiers of the illegalities.
“I think that the prosecution or the arrest should not only be on those that we find on the field. Those that we find on the field, when we get them, we need to find out who sends them there because these people that we meet, these illegal miners, sometimes you look at them and you realize that they cannot even afford to rent an excavator.
“They [labourers] can’t even afford to buy about 100 litres of diesel, let alone gallons, to do the work. It means that there are some financiers behind them. There are some financiers somewhere. So if the law would permit us to look for who is behind, then we can easily get them and stop them from doing that.”
