Monday, January 14, 2008

FISHERMAN POISONS RIVER EBI ....Page 24

Story: Moses Dotsey Aklorbortu, Axim

A 36-year-old fisherman,who allegedly poisoned the only river at Enyinase in the Nzema East District in the Western Region in his quest to harvest more fish has been arrested by the police.
The suspect, Kwesi Somoah, is currently in police custody.
River Ebi which was poisoned by the suspect serves as the source of drinking water for people in seven communities in the area, according to sources close to the district assembly.
The assembly is currently supplying the communities with safe drinking water, and the people would have to wait for a very long time for the water to come back to normal before they could start drinking it.
At the moment, a large quantity of the dead fish have been collected and buried by the district assembly.
The people have also been warned not to pick any fish from the banks of River Ebi for food.
The district chief executive and other opinion leaders became alarmed since the first quarter of last year a similar incident happened at Tumatu, also in the district when residents consumed fish they had collected from the banks of the Ankobra River, resulting in the death of nine people and several others being hospitalised.
According to the acting Axim District Commander of Police, DSP Peter Ndekugrie, the suspect was helping them in their investigation. He said it was by divine intervention that nobody had consumed the fish or drunk from the river before the discovery.
He said upon hearing of the incident, he detailed his men to take a sample for laboratory analysis and warned that the people in the community be guided by what happened at Tamatu in the recent past to ensure that they did not consume dead fish.

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