Residents of Takoradi, Accra and other towns could be consuming contaminated food products made from cassava.
This is because some traders at Gwira Dominase in the Evalue-Ajomoro-Gwira Municipality of the Western Region are using water from the galamsey contaminated Ankobra River to prepare cassava dough, which is sent to market centers in Takoradi, Accra, and beyond.
The Ankobra River serves several communities in the Nzema area in the Western Region. Starting from northeast of Wiawso, it flows about 190 kilometres south to the sea. It also acts as the boundary between the Ellembelle District and the Nzema East Municipality all in the Western Region. The river, rich in gold deposits has socioeconomic importance to communities in its catchment area.
Unfortunately, it is full of illegal mining activities. Environmental NGO, Hen Mpoano, working on the conservation of the Amanzule area which includes the Ankobra and surrounding water bodies tells Connect News that the river is heavily polluted with heavy metals.
“Our research shows it is highly polluted with lead, mercury and cyanide which are used by the illegal miners”, said David Osei, the project officer.
But this is what many cassava dough consumers around the country may be consuming. The women at Gwira Dominase who use water from the highly polluted Ankobra river to prepare the dough say they add “alum” to purify or decrease its turbidity before mixing it with the cassava.
“The turbidity is terrible. We buy alum to purify the water so we can use it to mix the cassava dough for akyeke and that’s what we at Gwiraman eat. We send some to Takoradi, Accra, Kumasi and in fact all across the country”.
“We are pleading with government for an intervention. This is what we drink. You can imagine the chemicals we are consuming,“ they said in an interview.
But it is not just the Nzema delicacy, akyeke, that they sell. They also send some of the cassava dough in its raw state to market centers across the country. These are used in making banku among others in many households.
Speaking to the Water Quality Manager at the Western Regional Office of the Ghana Water Company, Evans Asamoah Gyimah, he indicated that the wrongful use of the alum or the potassium aluminum sulfate could result in the damage of brain health and generation of diseases like Alzheimer’s.
He was also concerned about the other untreated pathogens in the water apart from the heavy metals. However, with no intervention, these women will continue to use the water and put people’s lives at risk.