The pollution of river bodies has been topical in Ghana for some time now. State actors have fought against galamsey activities in press conferences and boardrooms but have failed woefully on the ground.
Several opinion leaders have been unsuccessful in their efforts to turn the tides against unskilled mining activities and have been exasperated by its continual spread as powerful chieftains and persons wielding governmental power appear to be behind the operations of illegal mining. For now, any person who tries to fight galamsey will be like an insect caught in the web of spiders; he risks being killed.
However, one man who has resolved to defy the threats of death and campaign for the restoration of water bodies in Ghana and in particular the Eastern Region is School Improvement Support Officer Mr. Eric Amoako, of the Ghana Education Service at Suhum.
Amoako pens a short but an emotional piece as he mourns the pollution of the Birim River:
Biremu Abena, the mother of all water bodies in the Akyem enclave cries with utter pain and anguish.
The Obaatanpa, whose breast milk fed thousands of brave Akyem indigenes, now wallows in shame.
Her honor is gone.
Her beauty and pride is now history.
Our children ask of her story, and it’s sad to tell.
They want to see her flow as was told but there’s nothing glorious of her now to show.
Eno Abena Biremu Obaatanpa, the children you lovingly raised and cared for, have traded your honor for their selfishness and greed.
They have stripped you of your immaculate beauty and have desecrated you in muddy pools of worthlessness.
Today, your sweetness can’t be tasted. Your pool of fragrance is not suitable to bathe in. Your delicious foods like fishes, snails etc have vanished; there’s none available to decorate our ‘fufu’.
The ‘Akyemkwaa nana’ pride is gone.
And until the Birim River is restored to its original glory, the ‘Okyeman nkwaso’ tag would be vain and empty words and of no significance.
#savebirimrivernow
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