The Eastern Regional Minister, Eric Kwakye Darfuor, has disclosed that most male illegal miners are impotent because of the chemical substances they are exposed to.
He explained that apart from contaminating the water bodies and soil, cyanide also has negative health implications which include reproductive health challenges.
“One thing about cyanide is that it causes impotence among men. So wherever there is galamsey the men are impotent. But if you are able to give birth too, the child will have a deformity, so if care is not taken we are annihilating Ghanaians, we are killing ourselves.”
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He was speaking at the launch of 2018 citizens budget in Anyinam.
He said records suggest that there were about 4,000 illegal Miners on the Birim River which stretches 170km from Akyem Apapam to where it joins river Pra.
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He said that Operation Vanguard taskforce has been of help in curbing the situation even though some of them have not lived up to the task.
He said Operation Vanguard taskforce has helped to arrest and prosecute some of the illegal miners, many are still on the Birim river mining.