Galamsey’s underrated menace

The frightening sight of polluted great rivers and other water bodies in our country today, as a result of indiscriminate and illegitimate mining of gold popularly called ‘galamsey’, is a horrible menace whose real propensity to destroy our lives, properties and the environment has been woefully underrated by all.

The craving for money and physical properties by the perpetrators of this despicable act of illegal mining has completely blinded them to the realities of their nefarious activities, and unfortunately, forced all of us into the abyss of destruction and misery.

Our leaders and authorities look on sheepishly, while a few people of both Ghanaian and non-Ghanaian descent pull us into penury and our early graves through galamsey, with blatant disregard for the laws that protect our natural resources and the environment. This is truly sad!

Why?

Why should the state security agencies, with all the logistics and apparatuses to fight crime, sit comfortably and unconcerned and watch Ghanaians being deprived of their rights to good health and life, so aggressively by the wicked and selfish few?

This is truly sad!  

The Ghana Army has been among the best when it comes to international peacekeeping since the time of the United Nations Interim Forces In Lebanon (UNIFIL) under the late General Emanuel Erskine, and we also saw their act of bravery during the Economic Community Of West African States Monitoring Group (ECOMOG) peacekeeping mission in Liberia under the command of ‘Bufalo’ soldier, the late General Arnold Quainoo.

If the same tenacity, and ruthless enforcement of military discipline that is backed by full political commitment and will are employed by the powers that be to uproot galamsey in this country, there is no way we cannot crush and erase this dark menace from Ghana. Yes! We can do it if we want to.

It is an underrated menace because the damage it is causing to our dear country is heart-wrenching, when we look at it from a purview devoid of any political and partisan wooden spectacles and think about it without any veil around our minds.

A life-supporting substance like water, which is second to air, is becoming rare in Ghana, mostly because of galamsey, which has robbed Mother Ghana of great rivers such as Ankobra, Birim, Densu, Bia, Pra, Tano and others that were good sources of drinking water in the past.

All these mighty rivers and their beautiful tributaries have been polluted, muddied and poisoned to the core because of galamsey.

The careless and wanton release and exposure of poisonous and carcinogenic chemicals into our water bodies and the soil have turned these natural resources into breeding grounds for serious sicknesses such as cancer and kidney diseases for people of all ages and statures in the affected areas.

Our potable water, which used to be a clean source of drinking water, is no longer clean and safe because of the heavy amounts of chlorine and other chemicals needed to disinfect the water before pumping it through the pipes into the taps in our homes and communities.

This is sad! What are we doing to ourselves as a people now, and for the generations yet unborn?

Forefathers

Had our forefathers done things in the same way we are doing now, would we have come to meet all the great rivers and forests that have sustained us until now, and even destroyed everything in our lifetime?

Our forests are being depleted at an alarming rate without replenishment, and the soil in our land is being degraded at a faster speed than it ever happened in the history of our country.

The good and naturally fertile Ghanaian soil with special qualities which was given to us freely by the creator of the universe to make our tubers and crops grow beautifully healthy and give our Cocoa beans that special flavour and quality, is now polluted and poisoned to the extent that even our tubers now carry heavy metals that are injurious to our internal organs.

What are we doing to ourselves?

Galamsey, the underrated menace, is slowly but surely leading us to self-annihilation if nothing is done to stop it.

“What shall it profit a man, if he gains all the money but has to spend all to buy medications and import water from another country?”

Have we thought about this?  This is truly sad.

What kind of nation are we leaving behind for generations yet unborn?  

A nation bereft of good sources of drinking water? A nation devoid of a healthy fauna and flora ecosystem?

A nation full of cancer-causing chemicals in the soil and water bodies?

A nation with a very high mortality rate of newborn babies and children, because of the rippling effects of galamsey? 

All hands on deck to fight galamsey, the underrated menace, in Ghana now!!!

Kotobabi No 2. Accra.