Information reaching the Ghana News Agency indicate that, a sizeable number of fishes in the Ebi and Fia rivers have died due to galamsey activities upstream and threatened livelihoods of fishermen at Kamgbunli in the Ellembelle District.
Small scale mining popularly called galamsey has been a significant environmental concern in recent years affecting Kamgbunli, a Community in the Western Region.
Mr. Dauda Musah, Assembly Member for Kamgbunli electoral area, told the Ghana News Agency in an interview at Kamgbunli that the practice of galamsey had led to widespread pollution of their rivers such as Rivers Fia, Ebi and Amanzule resulting in devastating effects on aquatic life.
“The muddy slurry efflux from galamsey sites in rivers Fia and Ebi seriously affects primary productivity and habitats of indigenous traditional fish such as “Bile” a local name for a catfish”. “Fish harvested in the past month continued to develop a wound skin infection and rotten abdomen and scales begin to remove together” Mr. Musah Indicated.
That, he noted, “caused red, swollen lesions on the fish skin, quickly becoming gaping wounds that become very difficult to consume or sell in the market making it economically unbearable since that’s their only source of livelihood”. Fishers have therefore appealed to all stakeholders to come together and find the cause of the strange fish disease.
Source: GNA
