Excavator Belonging to NRCC Used By Illegal Sand Winners

It has emerged that, an excavator belonging to the Northern Regional Coordinating Council is being used by illegal sand winners to destroy the immediate environment along the banks of the White Volta River, thereby threatening the life of the river.

The excavator with registration number GV 3295-15 is reported to have left the premises of the Northern Regional Minister’s official residence where it had been parked since it was brought into the region several months ago.

But the minister, Salifu Saeed, denied having any foreknowledge or approving of the earth moving equipment to be given to the illegal sand winners after he was ‘questioned’ by journalists. 

This revelation came to light following the Regional Minister’s official visit to the river side to ascertain the level of destruction caused by activities of the illegal sand winners and their impact on a Water Treatment Plant belonging to the Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL). 

Mr. Saeed, who was accompanied by members of the Regional Security Council (REGSEC), gave the illegal sand winners a one-week ultimatum to relocate from upstream to downstream to continue with their work.

He cautioned that, failure by the illegal sand winners to relocate within the one-week ultimatum would incur the wrath of REGSEC which he was the chairman as they would no longer be room for human face approach to the situation.

“You can get graders to come and create a path to the downstream so that you can have access road to the place where you can get quality sand to mine”, he said.

Mr. Saeed admitted that, the activities of the sand winners was threatening the existence of communities in Tamale, Sagnarigu and other surrounding districts if they were allowed to continue winning sand at the upstream.

The Regional Manager of the GWCL, Engineer Stephen Ndebugre, expressed concern over the rate at which the sand winning activities were negatively impacting water treatment and supply to residents of five districts in the area.

According to him, the GWCL was now using more alum than ever before to treat the river water for supply compared to previously when they only used few bags to treat it.

“From 20 bags we are now using about 48 bags and sometime past we were using about 90 bags. For a small plant like this we shouldn’t be using that amount of water but because of the pollution we are compelled to use that amount”, he noted.

The White Volta River also known as the Nawuni River, the main production source of potable water for residents of the Tamale Metropolis, Savelugu/Nanton Municipality as well as the Tolon, Sagnarigu and Kumbungu Districts, has come under serious environmental threat. 

Years of uncontrolled sand winning by building contractors and owners of tipper-trucks, has destroyed farmlands and the ecosystem along the river banks including economic and medicinal trees. As a result, the depth of the river has reduced drastically over the years due to silts which have incapacitated its water holding ability.

More worrying is the fact that, the silting of the river is also posing a great danger to residents of the five metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies (MMDAs), threatening the river’s future capacity to supply the required volume of water to over 500,000 people.

The shallowness of the river has also resulted into perennial flooding of communities along its banks which sometimes have led to loss of lives and property. In fact, this further reduces the amount of water the river feeds into the Akosombo Dam, the country’s major source of hydroelectric power.