Dennis Miracle Aboagye, a former presidential staffer under the New Patriotic Party (NPP) administration, has accused the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) of overseeing the degradation of the country’s water resources through illegal mining activities.
Aboagye’s remarks, shared in a tweet today, paint a stark timeline of environmental decline and revival tied directly to the two major parties’ tenures.
“At the start of 2010, all 40 water sources sampling sites were described as FAIRLY GOOD,” he wrote. He attributed the initial stability to pre-existing conditions. This was before what he called the onset of “galamsey.” This is the local term for illegal small-scale gold mining. It occurred in river bodies and forest areas between 2010 and 2011.
Water quality plummeted dramatically from 2012 to 2016, according to Aboagye. This period was largely under NDC governance. During this time, 60-70% of 41 sampling sites were classified as having “POOR WATER QUALITY.”
He claimed this resulted in the loss of 25 out of 41 previously clean water sources, branding it as the NDC’s direct environmental legacy: “The NDC Party destroyed 25 of our 41 clean water.”
In contrast, Aboagye credited the NPP’s rule from 2017 onward with a marked turnaround. Citing line graph data, he noted an average of 32 out of 41 sites returning to “FAIRLY GOOD” status by the time Akufo-Addo left office in January 2025, compared to just 18 during the prior NDC years.
“NPP restored 14 of our destroyed water. Fact!” he asserted, concluding that “Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo by the time he was leaving office had improved the quality of our water bodies.”
The tweet, which has garnered hundreds of likes and retweets within hours, reignites longstanding debates over galamsey’s toll on Ghana’s waterways.
Environmental activists and opposition figures have long criticized both parties for lack of enforcement against the practice, which involves mercury and chemical pollution devastating rivers like the Pra and Ankobra.
A 2023 report by the Water Resources Commission echoed similar trends, documenting a spike in contamination during the early 2010s, though it stopped short of partisan blame.
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