Ankobrah ‘dead’, galamsey destroys river

The state of Ankobrah River, one of Ghana’s biggest waterbodies is getting worse as illegal mining activities have polluted same.

Ankobra river is located at Wassa Jukwaa Heman in the Wassa Amenfi East Municipality in the Western region.

A video captured by UTV shows how muddied and polluted the water has become. The river used to serve residents of the Wassa Jukwaa Heman who not only used it for domestic purposes but also fishing and irrigation.

Today, the video has been subjected to the activities of illegal mining, leaving it rather unsuable.

In 2018, government said an estimate of US$400 million was needed to dredge and clean the heavy mercury content in the Ankobra River in the Western Region.

This followed the assessment of the turbidity level of the river by a private research firm, which was commissioned by the government last year.

Turbidity is the cloudiness or haziness of a fluid caused by large numbers of individual particles that are generally invisible to the naked eye, similar to smoke in the air. The measurement of turbidity is a key test of water quality.

In four years, one can only describe the current state of the river as worsened despite several attempts by the government to calm down the activities of illegal miners.

Below is the video:

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