Story by:TNTNEWSPAPER GH.COM
The former Chairman of the Association of NPP constituency Chairmen in the Ashanti region,Chairman Odeneho Kwaku Appiah has added his voice strongly to calls on all Ghanaians to contribute their quota to help flash out or stop illegal small scale mining in the various forest reserves and water bodies.
According to him,the country cannot afford to continue to lose our cherished forest reserves and water bodies to illegal mining activities.
The astute politician cum- businessman who is also a security expert is therefore pleading with all Ghanaians irrespective of one’s political affiliation, religious or ethic background to join the fight against illegal mining popularly known in Ghana as Galamsey.
Speaking on a number of radio stations in Germany, Chairman COKA cited Germany and other countries which are currently suffering from water crisis.
The former Kwabre South NPP who lost narrowly to the incumbent Ashanti regional chairman in the party’s recent elections lamented that the country is at a cross road as far as fight against galamsey is concerned to extent that some Cocoa farmers now preferred to cut down their cocoa trees to allow pave way for activities of illegal mining without thinking about the future consequences.
Chairman COKA’s appeal follows the recent arrest of Aisha Huang, other Chinese nationals as well as some Ghanaians involved in the illegal mining.
It is against the backdrop COKA stressed on the needed for all stakeholders especially the media,Nananom,politicians among others to intensify education on the need for all to stay away from destroying various water bodies and forest reserves across the country.
Records available indicates that many communities particularly mining areas in Ghana are facing serious water crisis.
And if this is not immediately address Ghana may soon be experiencing what Germany and other countries are going through as far as potable drinking water is concerned.
According to him,a bottle of beer is currently cheaper than a bottle of water which supposed to have been otherwise.
According to www.dw.com report,Drinking water is under threat in Germany :”The fact that three major water suppliers in the Rhineland region have raised the alarm shows just how urgent the issue has become. I
n a passionate appeal, the companies from Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands called on EU agriculture ministers to drastically limit the use of pesticides, liquid manure and other fertilizers in agriculture.
Without curbs, they warned, the legally prescribed quality of drinking water could no longer be maintained.
That means a lot is riding on the German government’s soon-to-be-released national water strategy”.
