Medical staff in Ghana’s Western North region say they are recording a high number of new-born babies without some vital body parts due to the activities of illegal mining popularly known as galamsey.

River bodies in the area which serve as the water source for domestic and farming activities are heavily polluted due to the indiscriminate mining activities on river bodies. The situation has left the poor community with over a population of about 1000 people with no option but to depend on unsafe water for drinking and other domestic use. 

Meanwhile, the anti-galamsey soldiers deployed by President Nana Akufo-Addo to stem the tide of illegal small-scale mining, has destroyed some 28 excavators and 267 chanfans seized from illegal small-scale miners in the River Pra in the Eastern Region.

WADR’s Accra correspondent Atiewin Mbillah-Lawson reports.