Daily Heritage December 5

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News
Galamsey sites are not
safe for farming until
after 10 years - Research
BY KOJO ANSAH
A STUDY conducted on some
abandoned illegal mining sites in parts
of the Eastern Region has revealed
alarming concentration of mercury and
arsenic chemicals in the soil, making
the land unsuitable for crop farming.
According to the researchers, food
crops cultivated on these galamsey sites
have the potential of accumulating
high amount of mercury and arsenic
concentrations from the soil, which
will be toxic for consumers.
They have therefore recommended
that farming must be prohibited on
galamsey sites until after 10 years of
reclamation and restoration processes.
The research, titled ‘Feasibility Study
for Restoration Project’, was conducted
by Form International Ghana, a
subsidiary of Form International, a
Sustainable Forestry Investment firm in
Netherland, in collaboration with Soil
Research Institute of Centre for
Scientific and industrial Research
(CSIR)-Ghana on mapping of mining
and abandoned mining areas of 6500
hectares, 1800 hectare bare soil and
300 hectare mining pits.
Mr Rutger De Wolf, the senior
consultant with Form International
(Netherlands), who presented the key
highlights of the research at a
validation workshop on ‘Landscape
Restoration Potential and Business
Case Feasibility Assessment for Atiwa’
at Kibi, explained that the soil quality
test performed during the research
showed that mercury content in the
abandoned galamsey sites is as high as
58 ppm, more than the safe threshold
of less than 1ppm.
He also indicated that the arsenic
content was between 36 – 117 ppm,
higher than the safe threshold of less
than 20 ppm.
Mr Rutger De Wolf concluded that
due to the alarming mercury and
arsenic contamination, none of the
visited and tested sites are currently
safe for food production, adding that
it is only good for non-food
production such us planting economic
trees, nitrogen fixing plants, and shrubs
whose leafs or backs must be tested
before used for herbal medicine to
avoid endangering lives.
Also, recorded in during the
research is chemical contamination of
the Birim River, which was noted to
contain high levels of mercury and
arsenic, with variable level of lead and
moderate to high turbidity.
However, despite this level of
contamination, some farmers have
cultivated crops on the mercury- and
arsenic-contaminated mined lands
which experts have raised health alert
over.
The Chief Basin Officer of the
Water Resources Commission, Eastern
Region, Dr Ronald Abrahams, told the
DAILY HERITAGE that crops that
have already been grown on galamsey
sites must be destroyed immediately
before it is smuggled to markets.
"The results that have been
obtained from the soil and water tests
[suggest] it is just advisable that if
somebody has grown food crops on
the land areas under consideration,
they have to hive it up, they will have
to destroy the crops and they should
not think about what they are going to
get because research has proven that it
is good health-wise,” Dr Abrahams
said.
• Rutger De Wolf -
Senior Consultant with
Form International
BY KOJO ANSAH
FORMER PRESIDENT
Jerry John Rawlings has
advised young girls not to
value self-consciousness
and physical attractiveness
at the expense of their
education.
According to the ex-President,
many young girls of teen age forget
to develop their mental
consciousness during such period
and rather get carried away by their
physical looks to the detriment of
their education.
The former President said this
when speaking as the Guest of
Honour at the fourth Speech and
Prize-giving Day organized by
Mamfe Methodist Girls Senior High
School in the Eastern Region on the
theme: ‘Discipline; a Pre-requisite for
Academic Excellence, Stakeholders
Take’.
The former President, inspired by
the high level of environmental
discipline exhibited by the school,
STEEL AND iron rod
manufacturing giant, B5 Plus
Ghana Limited, has donated GH¢
5,000.00 worth of iron rods and
other building materials to the
Ghana Police Service.
The donation, made at Oyibi in
the Greater Accra Region, is in
support of the proposed Ghana
Police Music School project.
In a brief remark, during the
presentation, Managing Director
of B5 Plus Ghana Limited,
Bhavesh Kumar Tailor, announced
that the gesture formed part of
the company's Corporate Social
Responsibility.
According to him, B5 Plus
deemed it necessary to support the
Ghana Police Service because it
believed that the project would
impact positively on the larger
society.
“When we heard that the
which makes its environment
attractive and conducive for academic
exercise, expressed wonder why as a
nation, despite all the laws and law
enforcement agencies in existence,
the country continues to grapple with
serious sanitation challenges.
The former President expressed
optimism that the government’s
move to deal with the menace
through law enforcement would
bring sanity to the environment.
The Minister of Gender ,Children
and Social Protection ,Otiko Afisa
Djaba, who represented the
President, charged the students to
develop resilient mentality
and believe in themselves despite the
challenges that may come their way
in order to persevere to build a
career.
According to the Minister, young
women must be self-motivated and
not to give in to any sexual
exchanges for favours because hard
work and determination are the only
keys to success.
She said the Gender Ministry is
making sure that no Ghanaian child
Ghana Police Service wanted to
put up a music school, we quickly
decided to contribute to it as part
of our Corporate Social
Responsibility,” Kumar Tailor said.
Director of Bands, Ghana
Police Central Band,
Superintendent Dr Frank K.
Hukporti, who received the
donation on behalf of the service,
lauded the B5 Plus Company for
the exceptional support and
prayed that other corporate bodies
would emulate same.
The idea behind the
construction of the musical
school, he said, was part of the
overall agenda to transform the
Ghana Police Service as it turns a
century next year.
The school, he indicated, shall
benefit not just the Police Service
but the entire Ghanaian society.
is
DAILY HERITAGE TUESDAY, DECEMBER 5, 2017
Don’t value physical
attractiveness over education
•Rawlings entreats young girls
•Former Jerry John Rawlings
left out or behind in getting access to
quality education.
She said the free SHS policy is to
provide equal opportunity for all to
have access to education.
The Headmistress of the Mamfe
Methodist Girls SHS, Ms Sylvia
Isabella Laryea, mentioned the
introduction of special teachers for
students with disability, monitoring
and teaching trackers, and academic
exchange programmes with foreign
institutions as some of the initiatives
that had improved academic
performance of the school.
She said the improved academic
performance is evident in the feat
chalked up in WASCE 2017 for
which the school received Eastern
Region Best School Awards and
international recognitions.
Ms Laryea told the DAILY
HERITAGE that despite the feats,
the school was facing infrastructural
challenges and in dire need of dining
and assembly halls, and a kitchen.
She also called for the tarring of
roads in the school as dust from
them causes health problems,
especially for asthmatic students.
B5 Plus donates towards police music school construction
• The Managing Director of B5 Plus Ghana Limited, Bhavesh Kumar Tailor, announced that the gesture
formed part of his company's Corporate Social Responsibility
WWW.DAILYHERITAGE.COM.GH
Forestry
Commission
arrests illegal
chainsaw kingpin
BY KOJO ANSAH
A MAN believed to be the kingpin
behind illegal chainsaw business in
the Atiwa Forest Reserve is being
trailed by the Forestry
Commission.
He is reported to have recruited
chainsaw operators in Kibi and its
environs and sponsoring them to
invade the Atiwa Forest to illegally
harvest economic trees.
Seven of the illegal chainsaw
operators have been arrested in the
Atiwa Forest Reserve this week.
The suspects are Addo Godwin,
30; Kwasi Kwakye, 20; Okyere
Patrick, 25; Solomon Megah, 30;
Anim Boateng, 20; Yaw Ofori, 25;
and Addo Norbert, 25.
The seven were arrested last
Tuesday by forest guards under the
Anyinam Range of the Forest
Services Division of the Forestry
Commission after excruciating
trailing of the suspects, who were
operating in the forest in Akyem
Apapam section.
Three chainsaw machines have
been confiscated while the suspects
are handed over to the Kibi Police
Command for further action.
The Anyinam Range Manager
of the Forestry Services, Mr
Palmer Aikins Amponsah, told the
DAILY HERITAGE at Kibi
that the illegal chainsaw business is
on the increase following the fight
against galamsey.
He said most of the
perpetrators, as well as illegal
miners caught mining in the forest
reserve, had been arrested and
prosecuted.
"I am even surprised that
despite continuous arrest they
continue to invade the forest to
mine and illegally cut down trees
with impunity. If you will
remember, about two months ago,
29 were arrested and prosecuted,
so my advice to the youth is that
they should find other livelihoods
like farming to do because we are
leaving no stone unturned; we will
continue to arrest and prosecute
them,” Mr Amponsah.
•Some of the arrested illegal chainsaw kingpin