The Unregulated River Sand Mining at Battor Can Pose Geological Challenges for the Community and Its Neighbours If Not Checked

The picture above depicts the sandy principal streets of Battor around the post office. This unfortunate situation is due to the daily transportation of river sand from Battor. If the Battor town itself is like this, then one can imagine the damage to river banks where the sand mining is being done unabatedly.

Battor is of one the 13 traditional areas in Tongu and it is the administrative capital for the North Tongu District. Even before becoming a district capital, Battor has been widely known for its vibrant Catholic Hospital. Some German Catholic Nuns built the Hospital in 1957 pursuant to a request made to the Church by the chief of the Community.

For some years now, there is indiscriminate river sand mining going on in the Volta River at Battor and it is apparently unregulated. Sand extraction machines are used daily at Battor in mining sand from the riverbed. My foreboding is that if this indiscriminate business activity is left unchecked for years, it can pose serious geological and geomorphological challenges not only for the Battor Community but also for other settlements along the River.

Existing Literature and What Is Going On At Battor

Various empirical studies (Pielou, 1966; Byrnes and Hiland, 1995; Ashraf et al., 2011) have established that river sand mining poses serious environmental challenges especially when the rate of extracting sand and other river materials exceeds the rate at which the sand and these materials are generated or replenished naturally.

Physically, the river sand mining at Battor can lead to reduction of the water quality due to turbidity and oil pollution from the sand extraction machines. In addition, the river sand mining can disrupt aquatic life (excessive removal of infauna, epifauna, benthic fishes etc.). It can also affect the channel form of the River thereby altering the riverbed and leading to riverbank collapse and erosion especially downstream. This resultant erosion has the tendency to make the river change course and undercut buildings and even electricity poles in nearby communities. It is empirically established that riverbed degradation can undermine bridge supports, pipelines or other structures and if a floodplain aquifer drains to the stream, groundwater levels can be lowered because of bed degradation (Collins et al., 1990).

This may also happen because the continuous incision in the riverbed may gradually make the communities cave-in. Excessive river sand extraction does not affect the aquatic ecosystem alone. It affects the physical environment beyond the river.

Suffice to say that the ongoing in-stream sand mining at Battor will in future pose both environmental and even socio-economic challenges for Battor and other Tongu communities.

One may assert with certainty that the so-called lucrative river sand mining ongoing at Battor is illegal and it is not done scientifically despite the fact that it is distorting the riverine ecology. Seemingly, the North Tongu District Assembly is collecting some taxes from this geologically dangerous business venture so those engaged in it feel that the local government authority has endorsed the venture as legal. The chiefs and people of Battor should not be oblivious of the fact that the ramifications of the river sand extraction will spare no one once they begin to take effect.

The Government of Ghana itself, the Volta River Authority (VRA) and the Battor Traditional Council must not look on unconcerned. Also, it should not be lost on the chiefs and people of Battor that the river sand mining can even affect the cherished Battor Catholic Hospital, which is not too far from the Volta River.

The Battor people should also not forget that until the Akosombo Dam was fully built in 1965, most of the communities in Tongu including Battor suffered annual flooding, with the last flooding in 1963. Have they so soon forgotten about the ravaging effects of the annual flooding once upon a time? Must adults at home leave a pregnant goat to go through labour pains while tethered to a tree?

Presently, the once neat Battor town is now made dirty with heaps of sand particles on the major streets. These particles drop daily from the tipper trucks that come from various places to cut the sand away to Sege, Tema, Accra, Ashaiman and other places. Battor town is no longer beautiful as it used to be in the days that nobody was mining sand from the River.

Another negative externality of the river sand extraction at Battor is that it has largely contributed to the destruction of the Sege-Battor-Mepe road because of the heavy trucks used in transporting the river sand daily from Battor.

The river sand mining at Battor also poses a local political challenge. My checks revealed that the sand extraction occurs in the land of the Kɔnɔkuxɔ Clan but the tipper trucks ply through Sohε. In view of the fact that the Sohε Clan does not benefit from the river sand mining, the venture poses negative externality to their land, which has become the access route to cutting the sand away with trucks. I also gathered that the people of Sohε Clan once blocked the access route to the mining site but the Police intervened.

Recommended Interventions

The Government of Ghana, the VRA, the Environmental Protection Agency, the North Tongu District Assembly and the Battor Traditional Council must take note that in India, Malaysia and other countries engaged in river sand mining, there are policies regulating the venture and there are some scientific approaches used. It is not done indiscriminately and illegally in those places. I, therefore, propose that even if the sand mining cannot be stopped immediately, a regulatory policy should be formulated to ensure that the mining is done in ways that conserve the equilibrium of the River and its natural environment.

Accordingly, I call on the relevant authorities to cause an empirical assessment of the effects of the river sand mining at Battor on the Volta River itself and the communities along the River. Studies have shown that the environmental impacts of in-stream mining may be avoided if the annual bed load is calculated and aggregate extraction is restricted to that value or some portion of it.

Perhaps the District Assembly must equally invite the Architectural Engineering Services Limited (AESL) and the Geological Survey Department to assess buildings and other physical structures close to the Volta River to see if the sand mining is not already affecting such structures. It is always wiser to be proactive rather than be reactive. Kneejerk solutions often lead to despair and preventable loss of precious lives and properties.

The Management of the Battor Catholic Hospital may also want such an assessment carried out on their buildings and other installations to be sure they are safe. I challenge the Management and staff of the Hospital to mount pressure on the authorities because casualties resulting from any disaster caused by the river sand mining may be overwhelming for the Hospital; that is if the Hospital itself has not collapsed as a result.

Conclusion

It is my ardent hope that somehow, someone or the authorities that matter will equally foresee the ramifications of the river sand mining at Battor and share into my forebodings and concerns.

~Asante Sana ~

Author: Philip Afeti Korto

Email: [email protected]