Illegal mining activities along the Black Volta River is threatening potable water supply in Wa in the Upper West Region, the Community Water and Sanitation Agency has said.
The continuous activities of the illegal miners, according to the Upper West Regional Director of the Agency, Wolanyo Kudzo Siebi, is affecting the quality of water and likely to increase the cost of water treatment for domestic use.
Mr Siebi who is also a member of the Black Volta Basin Committee told TV3, said he is not sure that the Wa water project at Jambusi has been designed for polluted raw water, noting if the water gets highly polluted it may affect the treated water as well.
He has thus called for an immediate stop to illegal mining in and along the river to prevent further pollution, else “they will not be able to meet Ghana’s standard on water production”.
Hundred per cent of rural water supply in the Upper West region is drawn from ground source with the assumption that water from underground is free from contamination.
But Mr Wolanyo also hinted that the agency has just discovered there are new contaminants such as manganese, ion and phlorid in some ground water sources for which they have decommissioned some of them while still conducting research in other water sources.
He said testing for water quality is expensive.
The Upper West regional rural water supplies water to 10 out of the 11 districts out aside Wa municipal, with a coverage of 77 per cent in the region.
The WA water supply system is currently on test run and will soon be operational by the Ghana Water Company Limited.
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