An Open Letter To The Minister Of Water Resources, Works And Housing

Good Day Sir, it has been a long time since we met, I see you in dispatches as you go about your challenging tasks in these difficult times. Unlike many of your colleagues, you have not attracted much bad press as a person compared to many other colleagues of yours in government. I personally attribute that to your avoidance of or none involvement in controversial issues. Your maturity and experience in life, both public and private, have played no mean role in formulating your style and insulating you from the lashing tongues of members of the public and the media generally.

It may also be that you are doing so well where you are such that the public angst is not directed at you very often or at all. I was however very disappointed when I read a story in the Daily Guide of Friday, September 2, 2016 when you visited the Western Region and ostensibly visited certain communities along the Pra River, where galamsey activities in the river have seriously polluted this otherwise pristine river, which has been the source of drinking water for those of us living within Sekondi-Takoradi and its environs for God knows when.

In case you have not read this story attributed to you on Starrfmonline, let me quote it to you. 'The Minister of Water Resources Works and Housing, Dr. Kwaku Agyemang Mensah has advised chiefs living along the Pra river to invoke curses on illegal miners (galamsey operators) who are bent on polluting the river in the Western Region. The minister gave the advice during a working visit to inspect water projects and treatment plants at Daboase, Ankobra and Asuogya, all in the region.

The minister who was displeased and shocked at the level of pollution of the river, said he could not understand why illegal miners continue to pollute various water bodies which serve as a source of drinking water, despite several interventions put in place to nip the practice in the bud. According to reports, the minister further advised the traditional rulers to invoke curses on the illegal miners and refuse them accommodation.

Western Regional Chief Manager of Ghana Water Company, Martin Kodjoe told the minister that the region is likely to face acute water shortage due to the continued pollution of the Pra and the Ankobra rivers'.

Sir, I have taken pains to quote the report to you so that this piece may not be considered as mischievous. In the first place, your visit was in response to an earlier expression of worry by the Chief Manager of the Ghana Water Company Limited who announced the shut down or plans to do so in respect of the Daboase in-take which had become so polluted that it has to take extra doses of purifying agents to make it consumable.

I listened to him on air and you did well in visiting the place, however, your visit was the fear of shortage of water that will affect the people living within the Metropolis and the political upheavals that the water shortage is likely to generate in this election year. You cannot say that you and the Ministry are unaware of the open destruction of the nation's water bodies across the country. In the Western Region, the Pra, Ankobra and the Tano rivers are on the verge of being rendered useless to human existence.

The Birim river is totally gone, the Offin River, even though had since time immemorial suffered some limited pollution because of the dredging which was taking place ( I lived and attended Boa-Amponsem Secondary School in Dunkwa On Offin) the situation today is filthy. Many small rivers which flow into the big rivers in Ghana have all been destroyed through illegal mining activities. There are reports that other water treatment plants in the Eastern Region are suffering similar fate because of the open pollution of water bodies by the illegal miners prying their illegal trade without let or hindrance.

The people of Kyebi, according to reports, have begun experiencing water shortages because the water treatment plant has been shut down due to the extraordinarily high turbidity of the Birim river which is their source of water intake. Mr. Minister, another study indicates that 26 out of 41 water bodies researched are highly polluted; in fact the study indicated that by 2030, that is by the next 14 years, no water can be treated in this country for consumption.

I am very sure that you know all these and more and that it may seem that I am being more Catholic than the Pope. Nay, I am expressing these or repeating them because as a son of this precious land called Ghana, I am very concerned about the future of this country. Any government that can preside over such wanton, reckless, lawlessness and show of bravado in the open destruction of our collective resource which is second to the natural requirements for human survival, is very callous and is on the path to the irredeemable destruction of the nation.

This destructive spree by both Ghanaians and non-Ghanaians, Chinese in particular is no news, but for a Minister of State under whose watch our water bodies are being destroyed with impunity to ask traditional leaders to invoke curses which are spiritual in their inputs and outputs to bring an end to acts that are physical, is what bothers me. Those who pollute the river bodies are human beings and not spirits, the equipment they use are material, we see them in operation every day, yet my Minister seems so helpless in dealing with the miscreants in our midst such that he is using surrogates to invoke the spirits to deal with physical and material problems in the 21st century.

Mr. Minister, are we being told that the State has lost its authority to provide security for its citizens by equipping and deploying the security agencies to flush out these small sections of the population who are bent on putting the safety and security of the future of this country in such jeopardy? If the state as represented by the government is incapable of dealing with internal threats to our collective survival, where do we stand should the threat be external?

Governance and leadership are physical acts of both art and science, it is not spiritual in form or shape, individuals in government or leadership positions may have their personal spiritual attachments, but modern governance is more of dealing pragmatically with situations than resorting to spiritual invocations, chanting, incantations and the rest that deal with modern challenges, least of all, the open destruction of water bodies essential for human life.

You might have arrived at this unorthodox method of believing in spiritualism to address such critical problems due to the cavalier attitudes exhibited towards this problem when it began. I am so hurt that in our time, pristine calm flowing rivers where we used to swim, wash our clothes, catch fishes, fetch for domestic use have become so turbid that even machines and chemicals cannot return them to purity for human consumption. Mr. Minister, just cast your mind back to Bibiani North in your childhood and youthful days, and see the beauty of the streams that meandered their way through the town and the fact that they no longer exist and even if they do, they are of no use for serious human activity.

Your ministry has the responsibility to ensure that clean water, not necessarily potable water, exists for varied uses as citizens of this country. Your ministry and the agencies under it which have the responsibility to ensure the survival of our water bodies seem helpless, they have given up on the criminal activities of those who want to illegally take the gold at any cost, including destroying such irreplaceable resource, as water. Their only hope, according to you, is to resort to curses to kill the operators or what?

For once, I am regretting being a Ghanaian. Good day, Sir,

Your disappointed brother,
Kwesi Biney.