The Vice-Chancellor of the University of Mines and Technology, Prof Richard Kwasi Amankwa has indicated that the university has a technology to reduce the turbidity of river bodies affected by illegal mining.
According to him, the technology has been tested on a small river in Tarkwa and it worked.
Prof Amankwa said this when the Minister of Lands and Natural Resources Minister, Hon Samuel Abu Jinapor visited the University as part of his two-day working visit to the Western Region.
He noted that with the permission of the Water Resources Commission, the turbidity level of a heavily polluted river like the Pra river will go down within three weeks to one month.
He noted that even though the government is trying its best to clamp down galamsey, the turbidity of the water level is not reducing.
He said they will mix the water with certain chemicals that will force the particles to settle in order to make them clean for consumption.
“Research that we’ve done on campus shows that it’s possible to clear these rivers. The tradition has been that you wait and when the small-scale miners stop working the rivers will clear by themselves. Over the years it has not cleared and I think it’s time to force those colloidal particles to settle. And we have the technology to do that and we’re seeking your help to do that.”
Prof Amankwa also mentioned that UMaT has developed educational mining model programmes which when approved by the ministry of education will be taught in all the seventeen rich mining communities in Ghana.
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Source: Kasapafm