Former Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) boss and public health advocate, Dr John Kingsley Krugu, has criticised the government over what he sees as its poor handling of the illegal mining menace, warning that the situation is driving Ghana toward a dangerous public health crisis.

The warning follows the shutdown of several Ghana Water Company treatment plants, including the Kwanyako facility in the Central Region, after dangerously high turbidity levels made water impossible to treat. With many communities now facing severe shortages, residents have been left with no option but to turn to unsafe sources for drinking water.

Dr Krugu insisted that the law already exists to fight illegal mining, but said there is a lack of strong leadership in implementing it.

“The new EPA law, if you take your time to read it, you’ll be amazed at what we put in there, and what we managed to do, despite the fact that we had opposition from other agencies and from other ministries who thought that we were making the EPA too powerful. And that is the truth that is in the hands of the current government. What is needed is political will to put that into its implementation, and then we will get the results,” he explained.

Dr Krugu was also critical of recent initiatives, which he described as unserious and a distraction from real solutions. He said the decision to send delegations abroad to study small-scale mining was an example of government failing to take the problem seriously.

“When I hear funny stories like a whole delegation needs to go to Australia to learn how to do small-scale mining and come back and things, I thought that we are joking as a country. We are tempering our very existence with the usual business as usual.

"And I think that we all need to call on the current president and the government to walk the talk, to go by their words. These were the people in opposition who called for a state of emergency," he said.

One resident who spoke about the situation described it as life-threatening and called for urgent action from both chiefs and the government.

“What we are facing is death poison, and if we drink it, we may die. We no longer have any source of drinking water. This is a plea. Illegal mining is destroying our water bodies in the Eastern Region. We know that permits have been given to mine in rivers.

"We are calling on our chiefs to send their Asafo groups into these mining areas to find those responsible. We also appeal to the government not to sit idle. We are dying because we no longer have drinking water.”

Dr Krugu further mentioned the health dangers linked to the current situation, explaining that the impact of contaminated water was already being seen in various communities. He pointed out that medical professionals had raised serious concerns.

“Medical experts have made it very clear how that is now manifesting even in the deformities of babies that are born. Then you have contaminated water, you know, even in places where we do not have heavy galamsey activities like the Oti Region, you are aware of the typhoid disease that is basically a disease of the debt and neglect.”

He explained that studies conducted on rivers such as the Ankobra and the Pra showed alarming levels of heavy metals, which pose risks not only to drinking water but also to the country’s food chain. As he put it:

“Studies have shown clearly that there are elevated heavy metal sediments in these water bodies that can end up in the fish that we eat. And I think there is evidence for that, which shows that there is detection of heavy metals in fish. And that is a risk to all of us because we all eat fish. Then of course, you have drinking water insecurity, which is even a bigger threat," he said.