Don’t spare ‘big fishes’ in galamsey menace

Small-scale illegal mining, popularly referred to as galamsey, poses serious threats to human life and the environment. In many mining communities in the country, wanton environmental destruction and the pollution of water bodies are worrying developments from the activities of illegal mining.

While efforts are being made by governmental agencies, including the security agencies and civil society organisations, to clamp down on illegal mining, the challenges wrought by galamsey persist and remain burdensome, sometimes with fatal outcomes.

The media have, over the years, played a very important role in highlighting issues related to small-scale illegal mining.

While there is unanimity over the fact that illegal mining activities place mining communities and human lives in dire risk, the sustained effort to address the crisis has been quite elusive.

Government interventions using the security agencies have often been reactive — usually, the interventions are made when protests reach a crescendo following sustained media coverage of the menace, but after a while any gains made are eroded, as the miners resume their operations with gusto.

The issue of galamsey seems to attract critical media reviews because of the extent of damage resulting from the highly mechanised nature of the menace, the direct result of the influx of foreigners and their introduction of some modern machinery into small-scale mining.

Therefore, what used to be simple surface mining by indigenes of mining communities to help improve their livelihoods has been transformed into highly mechanised operations, with more devastating effects on the environment and the poor management of the after effects of the operations.

Evidently, there will be the need for more sustained coverage of the menace until it is totally tamed and the appropriate long-term regulatory and administrative interventions instituted to effectively consign those dangerous illegal activities into the dustbin of history.

The Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, recently had cause to complain about the state’s commitment to the fight against galamsey.

According to him, the galamsey fight would remain a sham unless the appropriate individuals, particularly financiers, who were responsible for the scourge are identified.

Addressing members of the Ashanti Regional House of Chiefs, an unhappy Asantehene insisted that the arrest of labourers at galamsey sites, instead of the site owners, smacked of failure.

Again, four private citizens have petitioned the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) of the Ghana Police Service to investigate and prosecute owners of the Akonta Mining Company for allegedly undertaking illegal mining activities in the Tano Nimiri Forest Reserve.

They allege that the activity of the mining company was in contravention of the Minerals and Mining Act 2006 (Act 703), as amended by the Minerals and Mining Amendment Act, Act 2019 (Act 995).

They are also asking the CID to investigate the people acting as directors of the company and also let them face the law, as they are breaching the law against illegal mining.

The are the Founder of the Media Coalition Against Galamsey, Dr Ken Ashigbey; a legal practitioner, Martin Kpebu; the Co-chairman of the Citizens Movement Against Corruption, Edem Senanu, and a fellow of the Centre for Democratic Development, Ghana (CDD-Ghana), Kwame Asiedu.

For us at the Daily Graphic, the fight against galamsey can no longer be left for the state but must be a collective effort, since galamsey is impacting everyone.

Everyone is impacted through the pollution of water bodies and even the soil on which the food we eat is grown. We are all at risk and so we must all join the fight against galamsey.

Indeed, with the situation getting worse, one of the ways to deal with the galamsey fight is to go beyond arresting those caught in the act and name the financiers involved in the menace and ensure they are made to face the law.

They are the real threat, not the poor people often arrested and caged, as has been the case.

We are confident that once the ‘big fishes’ in the galamsey menace are brought to justice, the problem of illegal mining will be curbed.