Galamsey resurgence: Can we tame this monster?

Galamsey resurgence: Can we tame this monster?

Lately the whole nation is at war with this monster called galamsey (illegal mining). But the talk about its resurgence and concomitant impact on the environment is mind blowing.

Politicians are blaming chiefs, the land owners and the chiefs are also blaming the politicians, who issue permits for mining. The security architecture supporting the fight against galamsey itself is wobblying.

It is startling that people are ready to trade their cocoa farms and farmlands for instant gain.

Unemployment challenges have also seen many of our young men and women involved in this criminal activities which are destroying our environment, water bodies and forest reserves.

Emergency situation

To say the least, galamsey operators have resorted to the use of cyanide in their operations, causing life threatening health challenges to many people.

Today, we have all got to a point of emergency or else the whole nation, formerly Gold Coast, suffers.

It has been six years of relentless fight against the criminal act and in the search for solutions to the menace, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo put his presidency on the line with an avowed resolve to halt the illegality and bring sanity to the small-scale mining sector.

Nonetheless, galamsey has reached its crescendo as large tracts of land are devastated while rivers, such as the Ankobra, Birim, Densu, Pra and Offin that provided livelihood to millions of Ghanaians, especially in mining communities, are heavily polluted.

With the tacit support of Media Coalition against Galamsey, some civil society organisations (CSOs) and other stakeholders, the government rolled out a raft of measures including the ban on all forms of small-scale mining, formation of the Inter-ministerial Committee on Illegal Mining (IMCIM), deployment of Operation Vanguard to clamp down on the activities of illegal miners as well as the review of the Minerals and Mining Act, 2006 (Act 703) to make the punitive regimes for illegal mining more deterring.

Acting with impunity

Regretably, these gamut of measures have not achieved the desired success. Persons engaged in galamsey are so emboldened that they do not give a hoot about calls to stop it.

Just Last Thursday, September 29, there was a shooting incident at Asamang Tamfoe in the Atewa East District in the Eastern Region over a disagreement between some youth of the area and anti-galamsey taskforce.

The taskforce had seized excavators that were allegedly being used for illegal mining, but the community members insisted that they were engaged in community mining.

The surge in galamsey activities across the country has got to the point that people are selling out their farmlands to illegal miners.

Viral videos

There are viral videos on social media in which some farmers publicly state their willingness to part with the farmlands to get instant cash.

In one of such videos, the farmer said he got more money from selling his farmland to illegal miners than what he got from the farm for over 10 years.

They have forgotten that there is life beyond that immediate gain; they have forgotten that the next generation will suffer to access farmlands; they are oblivious that their action will lead to food insecurity in the country.

Accusations

The most worrying trend is the involvement of foreigners in illegal mining in the Small Scale Mining sector in contravention of the provisions of Act 703 that prohibits foreigners from participating in small-scale mining in the country.

Currently, the Chinese woman, who has gained notoriety for engaging in galamsey in Ghana, Aisha Huang, is in court with three of her compatriots - Johng Li Hua, Huang Jei and Huaid Hai Hun.

They have been charged with two counts of engaging in the sale and purchases of minerals without valid licence contrary to section 99(1) of the minerals and mining (amendment) Act 2015(Act 900) and mining without licence contrary to section 99(3) of minerals and mining (amendment) Act 2015, Act 900.

Law must be enforced

The law must be applied appropriately to ensure that if found guilty, they receive sentences to send a strong signal to other perpetrators of the illegality.

However, while we chastise these foreigners for engaging in illegalities in the mining sector, one cannot lose sight of the fact that they do so with the tacit support of local agents who front for them.

Local agent

The Chinese Ambassador to Ghana, Shi Ting Wang, is on record to have stated in a public forum that while the China Government acknowledged that there were some Chinese engaged in illegal mining activities, they were undoubtedly being assisted by Ghanaians to perpetuate the crime.

“We don’t know where your gold is. We don’t issue visas too for the Chinese people coming to Ghana. Ghanaians issue the visas. Ghanaians aid the Chinese to where they can find your gold.
Why are Chinese not doing illegal mining in South Africa where there is also a lot of gold...because they cannot do that there and the locals don’t support such illegalities,” Mr Shi reportedly stated at a lecture organised by the Confucius Institute at the University of Cape Coast on April 17, 2019.

To a large extent, the Chinese Ambassador has a point, because if there is no seller, there can be no buyer.

Inward solution

This is the reason why we need to look more inward in the search for solutions to the illegal mining menace than looking outward.

All hands on deck

This is why there is the urgent need for an all-hands-on-deck approach to strongly fight against galamsey.

If we continue to pay lip service to the fight against the menace, we will be the ultimate losers. When food security is threatened, we are all affected; when waterbodies are polluted, it affects all of us; the negative impact of climate change affects all of us.

Efforts being made by the government to restore the degraded landscape through the Green Ghana project and the national reclamation programme are commendable but needs to be reinforced.

Related partners

Related partners, such as the media, CSOs, chiefs and local actors must demonstrate their fidelity to the country by playing active roles to curb the menace.

Metropolitan, municipal and district chief executives have a crucial role to play in halting the galamsey menace. Since they are the head of the security council within their jurisdiction, the fight against illegal mining should be made part of their key performance index (KPIs) so that their continuous stay in office would be linked to how best they are able to fight against the menace.

Traditionally, chiefs are the custodians of lands at the local level. They live in the local communities and know those who try to desecrate the land with illegal mining. Galamsey cannot thrive in local communities except with the tacit approval of chiefs.

Chiefs wield so much power over land in communities that no person can destroy the environment, if they mean to stop it.

Just recently, the Gomoa District Assembly in the Central Region, with the support of chiefs, banned the activities of land guards in the area.

This is commendable and must be replicated in other areas of the country.

Opinion leaders and security agencies, must also rise up and be counted too.

Galamsey monster must be tamed!!

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