Burning excavators or not in galamsey fight?

With a 200 strong military force dispatched into the mine fields, the second attempt to fight the ‘galamsey’ menace is taking off and is said to be chalking some successes already with the President’s ‘extra’ determination to decisively deal with the canker and to save our water bodies and the environment.

Since the take-off a fortnight ago, suddenly, the focus seems to have shifted, because of the debate about whether to burn the excavators seized in the operations or to keep them for profitable ventures of state.

I am worried that some of these conversations can distract from the efforts to deal with this national challenge, which, if not stopped, can lead to Ghana importing drinking water in the next few years.

I have listened to the Minister of Environment, Dr Kwaku Afriyie, likening the burning to that of destroying elephant tusks, seized guns or narcotics. I have also listened to opposing arguments that the law must be positioned better to serve our needs as a country.

Our MMDAs need excavators and other equipment for the dredging of drains, etc., as the rainy season approaches, so I was wondering if the Inter-Ministerial efforts at this fight was based on thorough discussions before the guidelines for the exercise were crafted.

Global challenges, illegal mining

Indeed, the challenges and effects of illegal mining are not peculiar to Ghana.

A recent study by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) shows mining is responsible for a 90 per cent drop in sediment levels in major Asian rivers, including the Ganges, Brahmaputra, Meghna, Mekong and Yangtze.

This has resulted in the shrinking of the delta regions of these rivers, leaving local people extremely vulnerable to drinking contaminated water, not to mention the resultant floods, land loss and crop damage.

The issue is a national challenge for South Africa, Zimbabwe and other countries which have been blessed with the natural resources embedded in the soil.

A paper by Richard Cramer of the Cape Town University stated that there were no easy solutions to the problems of  illegal mining and that in South Africa, as in Ghana, an array of factors reduced the likelihood of law enforcement efforts in preventing illegal mining completely.

 In the face of high levels of unemployment, illegal miners will, in all probability, continue to endeavour in the practice of illegal mining.

Solution?

It has been suggested that a solution to illegal mining would be to legalise and regulate it in what government calls community mining, allowing small-scale miners to obtain permits to carry out their activities under the supervision of regulatory bodies. This is the approach taken to what is referred to as artisanal mining in many African countries, including Zimbabwe.

 It is arguable that the regulation of artisanal mining is preferable to fruitless efforts, including the use of force aimed at eradicating the practice, at least as a measure that may break the hold of the uncontrolled activities which destroy our water bodies and lands.

Of course, in our Ghanaian situation, the suggestion by the National House of Chiefs to make Nananom work with the Assemblies so that they are held accountable for any of such illegal activities on their land must be considered.

Conclusion

Seizing excavators is not the main focus of the operations, but I think the fear is that keeping the excavators may lead to  some corrupt officials getting influenced to release them to illegal mining owners.

The other fear is that there are not enough spaces available to keep them without getting them missing.

I proffer this suggestion that with the involvement of the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development through the Municipal, Metropolitan and District Assemblies (MMDAs), the Assembles within the mining communities must provide spaces for these excavators so that the local Security Councils can take charge until they are all transparently distributed to the various Assemblies for their works.