The Water Resources Commission has said Ghana has made some improvements in the quality of water.

This comes after a statement by the Minister-Designate for Sanitation and Water Resources, Cecilia Abena Dapaah that the quality of many of the country’s water bodies improved before the end of 2020.

Answering questions at her vetting Tuesday, Madam Dapaah revealed the war on illegal mining has been successful as has further resulted in a positive change in the cleanliness of water bodies.

“The water quality as of July 2020 was quite good with their turbidity levels,” she said.

She cited the “Brim river seen in Akyemda and Osino” stating their turbidity to be 268 instead of the previous 1590 and that of Ancobra “which used to be 4432 is now 503, and we have the Tano, the Bia, the Pra.”

Director of Environmental Quality, Adwoa Paintsil explained what Mrs Dapaah meant by a reduction in the turbidity level.

“The water was so muddy that you fetch it and was very thick, and so because of that the treatment plant could not handle that.”

She said sections of the country’s water bodies where illegal activities were taking place were badly polluted as a result of the illegal mining.

“In 2016, it was very bad, 2017 July, we had a lot of improvement, 2018 also was on and off, 2019 same but January 20, July the turbidity was about 40…,” she concurred with Mrs Dapaah.

The Commission is, however, worried about the withdrawal of the taskforce as they say this would erode gains made.

The Director, however, called on Ghanaians to emulate other communities to protect the water bodies “because the water is for all of us.”

“We are also appealing to Ghanaians to help us because we all don’t live within the same communities and river bodies. There are communities that have been able to ward off those that take part in the galamsey,” she said.