Civil society bodies and environmental activists have upped the ante on anti-illegal mining, emphasising that a declaration of a state of emergency in affected areas remains the surest bet to win the fight.
In the latest clarion call, the Fix the Country Movement has joined the Ghana Coalition Against Galamsey (GCAG), the Catholic Bishops’ Conference (CBC), the Ghana Bar Association (GBA), the University Teachers Association of Ghana (UTAG) and other activists who contend that a state of emergency would inject some urgency into the fight against the menace.
The pressure mounts despite the government indicating that hot spots for illegal mining, otherwise known as galamsey, would be designated security zones, and that the state would utilise relevant powers to tackle the menace.
Last Monday, Fix the Country Movement staged a protest against galamsey in Accra, marching from the Tetteh Quarshie Interchange to the Jubilee House on Independence Avenue, stressing the need for the government to declare a state of emergency to confront galamsey.
Speaking to the Daily Graphic this week, the convener of GCAG, Dr Kenneth Ashigbey, said the current scale of environmental destruction was akin to a country under siege by external aggressors, insisting that the military must be unleashed to defend citizens.
Dr Ashigbey, currently the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Ghana Chamber of Mines, said a state of emergency would allow the President to take some bold and urgent actions to save the country from "environmental terrorists" rather than using due procedure.
For instance, he said, the distribution of water pumps seized from illegal miners to farmers was an illegality since the mining laws had specific provisions on the legal procedures for confiscation and forfeiture of those items.
"But under a state of emergency, the excavators and other equipment seized from the mining areas can be sold and the money given to the National Anti-Illegal Mining Operations Secretariat (NAIMOS) to work efficiently," he said.
Again, he said, under a state of emergency, the government could be empowered to confiscate any land on which galamsey thrived from the chiefs to serve as a deterrent to others.
"Even chiefs who watch over galamsey in their areas can be arrested or destooled immediately under a state of emergency, and this will bring some urgency in the fight against the menace," he added.
Additionally, he said, under a state of emergency, any unauthorised persons found around prohibited resources such as land and water bodies would be promptly arrested and prosecuted with alacrity.
"The declaration of state of emergency is a prerequisite for the government to do the things it wants to do to save the country from environmental terrorism, and this must be done.
People are dying from this environmental crime, and we cannot keep watching on.
The army, the navy and the air force must be deployed under a state of emergency to patrol the hot spots," he stressed.
Permanent camps
He said the move by the government to permanently station the military in some forest reserves was a master stroke to stem the galamsey tide.
He, however, added that permanent camps should be built for the Forestry Commission in the forest reserves to keep illegal miners off.
"The security wing of the Forestry Commission should be given superior weapons to operate with the military at the permanent camps in the forest," he said.
The GCAG Convener said the coalition would take a number of actions in the coming days to demand urgent steps to fight galamsey.
For instance, he said, the coalition would meet the President and provide further evidence to back the call for a state of emergency.
"The ultimate goal is to support the government to succeed in the galamsey fight," he said.
Economic angle
An economist and Professor of Finance at the University of Ghana Business School (UGBS), Prof. Godfred A. Bokpin, said all indicators were ripe for the declaration of a state of emergency in galamsey hot spots to save the environment.
He said the rising turbidity levels in the country’s rivers and increasing importation of water from other countries were enough reasons for the government to take the bull by the horns to halt the environmental crime.
“If you look at the data, in 2023 alone, Ghana spent over $11 million importing water from Togo, Nigeria, Spain, the UK, and other places.
The pattern is clear where people are heading towards, and those who can afford will begin to gravitate towards water importation,” he said.
Prof. Bokpin stressed that the government could not sustainably manage the public debt if environmental destruction persisted.
“If things get out of hands and a time comes when we have to make budgetary allocation to reclaim our water bodies and lands, it will come down to imposing taxes on all citizens.
We should not cross that red line of crisis point even though we are much closer than we think,” he said.
The economist stressed that although the government had been in power for merely nine months, that period was enough to take ruthless and decisive measures to protect the environment.
“Why can we not declare state of emergency now? If another country declared war on Ghana, we would be happy to deploy our army and all our security forces.
Galamsey is an internal threat, and this is even more dangerous than external aggression,” he said.
Background
There has been an upsurge in galamsey in recent years, although the previous government led by Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo declared war on the menace.
Currently, large tracts of agricultural land have been destroyed by illegal miners, who have also pillaged over 5,200 hectares of forest reserves.
Meanwhile, the turbidity levels of rivers such as the Ankobra, Pra, Offin, Densu and Birim have risen astronomically above the World Health Organisation’s recommended levels, forcing the Ghana Water Limited to shut down some of its treatment plants.
Some civil society organisations have underscored the need for an outright ban on the importation of excavators, except under proven conditions that the equipment would be used for road construction works.
Others have also said it was important for the government to make the fight against galamsey a key performance indicator for all metropolitan, municipal and district chief executives, such that their continuous stay in office would be tied to how effectively they were able to fight galamsey.
At a recent engagement with the media, President John Dramani Mahama said the declaration of a state of emergency was the last arrow that would be unleashed from the quiver in the galamsey fight.
He had given a firm assurance that the gamut of measures being rolled out by the government, including the tracking of excavators, revocation of the law that allowed mining in forest reserves (L.I 2462), deployment of blue water guards and the launch of the Responsible Cooperative Mining and Skills Development Programme (rCOMSDEP), would ensure that illegal mining was tackled head-on.
The President also said that personnel of the Ghana Armed Forces would be permanently stationed at hots pots to clamp down on galamsey.
