The Wassa Association of Communities Affected by Mining Changes is calling for an amendment to and enforcement of the Mineral and Mining law.
    

This is to make the law more binding on mining operations and address the environmental situation in mining communities in the country.
    

The Association noted that the current Mineral law had numerous gaps that allowed too much flexibility in the operations of mining companies, leading to excessive exploitation of both minerals in the soil, land degradation, pollution of water bodies and the maltreatment of people living in these communities.
    

Mr. Daniel Owusu-Koranteng, Executive Director, WACAM, said these at the launch of a research report on the “Determination of Heavy Metals in Water Bodies in Tarkwa and Obuasi Mining Areas”, in Accra on Tuesday.
    

He called on government to take immediate steps to regulate the activities of mining companies and said that the current environmental situation in the country’s mining communities was unacceptable.
    

Mr Owusu-Koranteng said that land degradation, pollution of water bodies as well as air pollution in these mining communities posed serious health implications to the people, who were found to be suffering from various illnesses.
    

These included skin and chest diseases, tuberculoses, diarrhoea, malaria, typhoid fever, dizziness and persistent headaches.
    

Mr Owusu-Koranteng said that the report would serve as a wake-up call for government to act against the pollution of water bodies through mining operations and ensure that agencies tasked with the enforcement of the law lived up to their task and to the expectation of the people.
    

He explained that recent media accounts and complaints from communities about cyanide spillages as well as the release of other hazardous chemicals including Arsenic, Manganese, Cadmium, Iron, Copper, Mercury, Zinc and Lead into water bodies through mining operations, necessitated the assessment of the levels of heavy metals in water in the study areas, which was supported by Oxfarm America.
    

Mr Owusu-Koranteng said the research indicated that most of the rivers in the mining areas of Obuasi and Tarkwa were polluted with elevated levels of these hazardous chemicals, which was far above the World Health Organisation (WHO) and Ghana Environmental Protection Agency’s (GEPA) permissible levels.
    

He said the report cited River Nyam in Obuasi, which had Arsenic concentration of 13.56 as against 0.01 required by the WHO and the GEPA.
    

Mr Owusu-Koranteng said the research revealed that River Asuakoo had 22.72 milligram per liter (mg/L) as against 0.4mg/L Manganese concentration required under WHO permissible guideline value and 24.00mg/L as against 2mg/L under the WHO permissible guideline value.
    

He said similar high levels of these chemicals were found in all the rivers and streams tested in the study areas.
    

Mr Owusu-Koranteng said that such exposure to elevated levels of toxic chemicals had other significant health implications such as reduced level of Intelligent Quota (IQ) in children.

PF