At all costs we must preserve remainder of Ghana's biodiversity hotspots

Dear critical-reader, at a time when humanity's only home, our beleaguered biosphere, is being so negatively impacted by climate change, we must,  as  wise and aspirational Africans,  preserve what is left of our nation's biodiversity hotspots.  Mother Ghana's future as a viable nation-state depends on that oooo, Ghanafuor. Full stop. Yoooooooo...

According to Google search: "Biodiversity is essential for the processes that support all life on Earth, including humans. Without a wide range of animals, plants and microorganisms, we cannot have the healthy ecosystems that we rely on to provide us with the air we breathe and the food we eat. And people also value nature of itself."  End of quote.  

The watersheds of the major river systems sourced for the production of potable water, for distribution nationwide, are being decimated, as a result of gold mining  (both legal and illegal), and its bedfellow, chainsaw bushcut lumber production, by ruthless  criminal syndicates, boldly committing ecocide inside our forest reserves, with total impunity.
 
And, it is all being done, at the expense of law abiding folk nationwide,  and that of Ghanaian society generally.  Even as we speak,  dear critical-reader, residents of our nation's  capital city, Accra, have been informed by the publicly owned utility company tasked with the production and distribution of  provision treated water,  nationwide,  the Ghana Water Company Limited  (GWCL), that its existing facilities, cannot meet today's demand for potable water, for city residents, because of the increase in population, and the rapid expansion of Accra's landmass-dimensional-metrics.

Yet, we are all aware that simple hand-washing, and having clean surroundings, to live in, are key to survival, in an era when serial-pandemics will be recurrent challenges, which societies worldwide will have to constantly grapple with. How can that be possible if treated water isn't available countrywide, I ask, dear critical-reader?

In that light, the bald truth, dear critical-reader, is that without question, shortages of potable water  in heavily populated  urban areas, globally, are definitely problematical in assuring and ensuring public health, and, thus ought to be avoided at all costs.  

That is why it is so tragic that Ghana's forest cover has been shrinking at such an alarming rate  - a life threatening abomination, being allowed to  occur, at  precisely the point when we need to protect our nation's remaining forests: which contain the watersheds of the main river systems that are sourced by the GWCL, to produce potable water for distribution via its countrywide  potable water distribution pipeline networks, across the entirety  of the territorial landmass of our Republic, dear critical-reader. Unpardonable. Outrageous.  Monstrous. Shameful. Full stop.

As wise and aspirational Africans, who think longterm, we cannot, and must not tolerate, the fact that  mere  allure of gold, which drives the unfathomable greed that  has literally made mad, the powerful individuals and private sector corporates that mine gold  in our nation's forest reserves, to continue being permitted by their  industry's regulatory bodies, to  mine gold in forest reserves, which contain the  watersheds of the major river systems in our country. No. No. No. Full stop. Case closed.  

For the sake of present and future generations of our people, at all costs, we must preserve the remainder of Ghana's biodiversity hotspots, by leaving the minerals beneath them, untouched,  oooo, Ghanafuor. Better that, than facing the unthinkable prospect of not having access to potable water, in an era of serial-pandemics, in a warming  biosphere, oooo, Ghanafuor. Yooooooo. A word to the wise...