The Ghana Association of Radiologists has churned out scary statistics about the number of Ghanaians afflicted by chronic kidney ailment.
With some 13% of Ghanaians suffering this health challenge the ages of the affected persons being between the ages of 25 and 50 as the statistics shows there is no doubt that as a country we are in a health crisis. The affected productive age bracket suggests an ominous tomorrow as far as health is concerned in this country.
We are doing little to reverse the situation as a country many interventions having been made to wake up government from an obvious lethargy all to no avail. What the state is doing currently by way of engaging the security services is nothing but a lip-service. The occasional arrests of small fries under television cameras do not address the problem but serving the propaganda interest of government.
Most of the afflicted persons originate from gold-bearing and for that matter illegal mining areas of the country leaving us with the conclusion that galamsey is responsible for this sorry state of our people.
There is a report about a three-year-old baby afflicted with this challenge the responsibility for which cause should be laid at the doorstep of the government.
The state has failed the innocent baby by not doing enough to stop the menace of illegal mining and the associated evil of the pollution of water bodies through the application of toxic chemicals which have seeped into not only water bodies but vegetables and other food crops produced in the affected areas.
The situation is no longer one which should be treated with kids’ gloves but dealt a robust blow. The task should be shared and we are looking at the church, mosques, Civil Society Organisations indeed all who partook in the pre-Mahama opposition period demonstrations to demand of the government to do something soonest, effectively to reverse the situation.
The implication of this high number of Ghanaians suffering chronic kidney ailment is alarming…some four million and we watch on as the big fishes associated with government get away with murder? This demographic detail should give concerned Ghanaians sleepless nights and rightly so.
We demand of all well-meaning Ghanaians to push the government to declare a state of emergency because indeed the statistics are scary. The statistics refer only to those whose situations have been captured through painstaking research. There are others without doubt enduring various stages of kidney malfunctioning but unable to seek costly interventions.
While other causative factors exist for the situation the role of cyanide and mercury account largely for this dangerous health challenge stands prominently.
With only a small number of afflicted persons being able to afford the cost of dialysis the possibility of rising fatalities occasioned by the condition cannot be ruled out.
It is worrying even disturbing to recall that President John Mahama during his opposition days mentioned that when he comes to power he would not concentrate on the small fries in illegal mining but rather arrest the big fishes.
It is instructive that in his last major remark about galamsey he admitted that some NDC persons are engaged in the menace. This is something known by Ghanaians as indeed two such names were put out on the public space. Nothing has been done to them and we wonder whether the President lacks the strength to act where it matters.
The African Union envoys in Ghana have added their voices to the many about halting illegal mining by going after the financiers by government. They have rightly identified the source of illegal mining…big financiers and politically-connected persons…facts known to government too well but unable to muster courage to deal with. Whatever happened to the state of emergency refrain when the President was in opposition? Our health matters.
