The Upper Denkyira East Municipality of the Central Region has become susceptible to flooding, the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO) has warned.
According to the organization, any heavy rainfall has the tendency to cause a massive disaster in a major part of the municipality due to the activities of illegal miners.
Illegal miners who are engaging in irresponsible forms of mining “have blocked and diverted the natural courses of the Offin River and its major tributaries. They have also mined in unapproved areas and just around residential areas contributing to the problem”- Yakubu Alhassan, the Municipal NADMO Director told 3News.com.
Also, several communities along the Dunkwa-on-Offin to Nkotumso road such as, Pokukrom, Kissikrom, Powerline and Mfanteman are likely to be cut off from the rest of the municipality as the road risks being flooded as a result of “mining activities done in close proximity to the road”.
Already, authorities have been forced to divert a section of the road after it became completely unmotorable as a result of the activities of the illegal miners.
“Those communities will definitely be cut off from the rest of the municipality anytime it rains heavily. We’ve conducted our assessment, and the entire municipality is at risk” the NADMO Director stressed.
Though there have been series of actions to clamp down on these illegal miners particularly, those mining in water bodies, the NDC Constituency Chairman for the area, John Swanzy Arhin, told this reporter that the “absence of MMDCEs makes coordination between security and other related agencies difficult” and thus want the “Ministry of Local Government to expedite action on the appointment of MMDCEs to facilitate the fight against galamsey”.
