The Ayensu River, once a lifeline for communities across the Central Region, now runs thick and brown, leaving residents of Kwanyako and nearby Mankrong scrambling for safe water and livelihoods.

Scenes at the shut-down Kwanyako Water Treatment Plant and along the riverbanks laid bare a crisis driven by illegal gold mining, locally known as galamsey.

Standing at the gates of the idle treatment plant, Dennis Miracles Aboagye, Director of Communications for Dr Bawumia’s campaign, held a press conference to demand fresh strategies.

“The NDC must show new alternatives in the fight against galamsey, not recycle old methods they once criticised. They gave six clear promises, and already one timeline has expired,” Miracles told journalists from the plant compound, underscoring political pressure being played out where the damage is most visible.

At the same time, other NPP communicators were on the ground, drawing attention to the human cost.

“This is not water anymore”, they lamented.

A few minutes’ drive from the treatment plant, in Mankrong, the river cuts a brown swath through community life. Residents said boreholes now yield discoloured water that must be boiled and treated with alum before use. “We once drank from this river, but today we can’t even bathe with it,” a concerned elder told JoyNews. “We vote for leaders who don’t think about our well-being.”

Another resident who was getting ready to bathe described a daily routine of boiling and treating borehole water. Food sellers who depend on the river for cleaning and food processing reported sharp drops in business, saying customers and vendors alike now fear contamination.

The wider impact

The Kwanyako Headworks historically supplies more than 30 districts across the region. Residents warn that without immediate relief, be it alternative water supplies or substantive action against illegal gold mining, the consequences will deepen: collapsing livelihoods, health risks, and stalled local economies.

Farmers say crops are suffering; fishmongers report dwindling catches. Community leaders described the erosion of social life that once revolved around the river, now replaced by worry and daily survival tactics.

Politics at the riverbank

Miracles’ press conference at the treatment plant folded political critique into the local emergency, calling on the ruling government to present new, implementable plans rather than repeat old policies. Opposition figures have, in turn, blamed the government’s enforcement record, saying more decisive action is overdue.

The political exchanges from Miracles’ presser to on-the-ground appeals by other party communicators have turned the Kwanyako plant site into both a theatre of protest and a place for policy argument. For residents, however, the debate matters less than whether they will have clean water anytime soon.

Until solutions arrive, Kwanyako and Mankrong residents will continue to rely on makeshift treatment and expensive alternatives. “We are suffering now,” said one food seller. “Tomorrow may be worse if nothing changes.”