Ghana Expert Calls For Tougher Laws Against Water Pollution

Photo retrieved from: www.neftgaz.ru

“People have therefore called on the government to put in place the necessary legislation and infrastructure to ensure that the area would not go the way of some oil-producing African countries where the resource had been mismanaged.

The West African country discovered oil in commercial quantities in June 2007 off its southwest coast.

Following the discovery, there were high expectations especially among those in the region that the resource would be used to improve infrastructure as well as the living standards of the people in the area.

Executive Secretary of Ghana Water Resources Commission (WRC), Ben Ampomah, urged the government here on Monday to institute tougher laws against the pollution of water bodies especially by mining firms operating in the country.

In an interview with Xinhua, the expert said the current laws left companies and individuals, who polluted water resources, off the hook after paying paltry fines.

Due to the rising incidence of water pollution by large and small scale mining companies, Amomah said, water pollution was an urgent national issue which had even reached to the level of a national security concern and so it needed a holistic concrete action to be solved.

The laws on pollution were not punitive enough and the commission had have to negotiate with mining firms for remedies any time pollution occurred, he added.”

Read more: Xinhua News