Following a weekend closure due to contamination from illegal miners, the Kibi Water Treatment Plant is now back in service.
The Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL) was forced to shut operations because the raw water in the Birim river had an alarmingly high turbidity level of 3800 NTU.
However, after the turbidity dropped to 300NTU on Tuesday, November 22, 2022, the plant’s operation was resumed.
Okyenhene Osagyefuo Amoatia Ofori Panin has demanded the arrest of the unauthorized miners in the meantime.
He labeled them as criminals that the Ghana Police Service must apprehend in order to bring charges against them.
Okyenhene reiterated his unrelenting call for the decentralization and retooling of the mining industry’s regulatory bodies in order to enable them to fight illegal mining effectively.
In the meantime, Osagyefuo Amoatia Ofori Panin ordered the destoolment of Benkumhene of Asamang Tamfoe Nana Boakye Darkwa on Monday, November 21, 2022 due to unlawful mining.
On November 9, 2022, a group of locals who identified themselves as Concerned Citizens of Asamang Tamfoe petitioned the Akyem Abuakwa Judicial Council, charging the Benkumhene with illegal mining, river pollution, and farmland degradation, endangering the food security and way of life of small-scale farmers.
The appeal was filed a few weeks after illegal miners in Asamang Tamfoe clashed with the Okyeman Environmental Taskforce during a community-wide anti-galamsey operation, resulting in gunfire on the streets.
The Okyeman Environmental taskforce was led by Chief of Akyem Apapam, Osabarima Apagya Ofori IV. The Benkumhene then held a press conference on October 6, 2022, calling their bluff and daring to violently clash them should they return to the community, claiming that they are engaging in legal community mining that has been authorized by the government.
At the Ofori Panin Fie’s forecourt, ritual was carried out to remove the Benkumhene.
Source: newsthemegh.com