Danger: Don’t Eat Fish From Fosu Lagoon

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has warned residents of Cape Coast to immediately stop eating fish from the Fosu Lagoon. It said the lagoon was the third most polluted in the country, after the Korle and Chemu lagoons. The Central Regional Programmes Officer of the EPA, Mr Francis Zakari, told the Daily Graphic that eating fish from the lagoon was risky because the act could cause cancers and nervous system breakdown. He said it was therefore, important that fishing activities in the lagoon be stopped until its health had been restored, saying that one-third of the lagoon was currently silted. Mr Zakari said large volumes of waste, both liquid and solid, from the final disposal site at Nkanfoah in Cape Coast were carried through run-offs to the lagoon. He added that waste oil, metals and other forms of waste from garages at Siwdu, as well as the waste product from palm kernel extraction around Adisadel Village and free-range defecation in the lagoon catchment area, had added to its current highly contaminated state. He noted that it was important that the polluters at Siwdu and Adisadel Village were resettled and called for properly engineered desilting of the lagoon as soon as possible. Mr Zakari suggested the construction of major drainage systems in the lagoon catchment area to divert run-offs directly into the sea. Meanwhile, the Cape Coast Metropolitan Chief Executive, Ms Mercy Arhin, has noted that millions of cedis would be required for the restoration of the lagoon and indicated that the assembly was seeking funds from other sources for the purpose.