An unexpected tragedy has hit Ghana.
It is reported that a meeting was arranged to discuss issues on mining practices, which are related to fighting galamsey. In the process, Ghana has lost eight healthy and energetic men in a helicopter crash.
What has happened was not expected, but let us also know that there is a looming and expected tragedy.
The booming galamsey will kill the cocoa industry because gold production, through galamsey, is more competitive and more attractive because of the pricing mechanism. Cocoa farmers will soon sell their lands for galamsey if they are not already doing so.
A bigger devastation will be when the quality of the little cocoa produced from the soils of Ghana is detected to be unacceptable for the world market because of pollution from galamsey chemicals.
Another looming danger is the outbreak of diseases coming from the pollution from galamsey, which is affecting quality food production and water by the day.
We are advised to eat fruits, vegetables, seeds and nuts, in addition to our regular foods.
Yet all these are no longer safe for consumption thanks to the resolve of almighty galamseyers and the inaction and indifference of those responsible to act and know better.
The usual excuse is that galamsey gives us sustenance, it is our little source of income and livelihood. But that is the contradiction, making a short-term living from a trade that undermines the medium and long-term health, stability and habitability of our own country, overwhelmed by toxicity.
So, even as we mourn and grieve over the painful loss, let us raise our heads and not bury them in our hands to avoid the looming catastrophe which will befall us sooner rather than later if we do not act swiftly and decisively.
And we should not call it an accident when it happens because we saw the danger coming!
We will all run to God and pray for His intervention, but God has already spoken.
It is up to us to listen to His voice and act accordingly.
If you want a country which is small in size but possesses resources which big countries do not have, it is Ghana. Let us wake up and show gratitude to God.
After feeding five thousand men with five loaves of bread and two pieces of fish, Jesus charged His disciples to ‘’gather up the fragments that remain, that nothing be lost. (John 6:12 NKJV).
In Ghana, we are not just wasting the fragments but destroying the main resources God has given us.
And that is our calamity, which is calling for attention.
Sylvester Asare
Financial Analyst
E-mail:vasaredsylver@yahoo.com
