The Managing Director of Ghana Water Limited (GWL), Adam Mutawakilu, has proposed a 24-month catchment recovery plan to deal with the threats of illegal mining, popularly known as galamsey.
He lamented the increasing threats of galamsey on the country’s water treatment infrastructure.
Addressing a press conference on Monday, October 20, 2025, he indicated that the 24-month catchment recovery plan focused on eight critical river bodies that feed GWL’s treatment plants across the country.
“We propose an upstream solution, a joint 24-month catchment recovery plan focused on eight priority river bodies feeding our plants,” he said. “The plan combines riverbank stabilization and revegetation at erosion hotspots, targeted, survey-led dredging around intake channels, and coordinated land use compliance and community engagement to protect riparian buffers.”
He explained that the initiative is economically sound and will help in restoring the water abstraction capacity of the affected plants, ease treatment difficulties, and ultimately reduce costs.
“While this makes financial sense, targeted upstream action will restore abstraction capacity, reduce treatment challenges, lower specific energy per cubic metre, and extend asset life by cutting corrosive wear,” he noted.
“In simple terms, we convert recurring emergencies into planned high-yield interventions that stabilize production and bend the unit cost curve back towards baseline,” he added.
By: Rainbowradioonline.com/Ghana
