Illegal miners block Birim River - Lives, communities in danger

Illegal miners operating around Kade in the Eastern Region have blocked the flow of the Birim River, leaving the river heavily polluted and residents in surrounding communities at risk of a major disaster. 

Apart from truncating the course of the Birim River, a major drinking water source, the illegal miners continue to leave behind gullies, some of them very close to houses in the community.

The situation has left the entire Adankrano, a farming community near Kade in the Kwaebibirem Municipality, in a state of fear and panic that floodwaters could inundate the area during downpours.

They have therefore sent a distress call to the government and other duty bearers to help stop the illegal mining activities and avert disaster.

The Chief of Adankrano, Nana Osabarima Sarpong Kumankuma II, told the Daily Graphic that the galamsey scourge was posing a security threat to communities and the nation, and was also devastating livelihoods.

“The flow of the Birim River, which has been blocked by these illegal miners, is a danger to our community because if it rains heavily, this area is likely to be flooded; and you can imagine how homes will be affected and the health concerns that will come with it,” he said.

Osabarima Kumankuma said already, cocoa farms and oil palm plantations, the major economic activities of residents of Adankrano and its surrounding areas, had largely been destroyed because of galamsey.

“And now, our Birim River, which served as the source of water for our forefathers and the past generations, has been heavily polluted such that we cannot do anything with it,” he said.

Accusation

The chief accused a tributer with the Ghana Consolidated Diamond Ltd (GCD) as being responsible for mining in the Birim riverbed.

Nana Osabarima Sarpong Kumankuma  — Chief of Adankrano, near Kade in the Eastern Region

According to the chief, whistleblowers informed him about the illegal mining activities of Mr Birikorang, prompting him (the chief) to visit the site on a fact-finding mission.

“My team actually saw that he (the tributer) has mounted excavators and other floating devices in the middle of the Birim River and truncated the flow of the water.

I questioned the illegal miner as to why he had to engage in such a crime against the environment and the community, and he said he was a tributer with GCD,” the Chief added.

He said in spite of engagement with the mining company and the tributer to unblock the Birim River, the situation remained the same.

Daily Graphic’s checks

Meanwhile, the Daily Graphic’s checks with the top management of GCD and the GCD Tributers Association (GTA), revealed that Osabarima Kumankuma and some of his elders had a meeting with the company on April 17, 2025, on the issue.

The Managing Director (MD) of the company, Edward Dadzie, told the Daily Graphic in an interview last Monday that following the concerns raised by the chief, an urgent meeting was held by the two sides after which a directive was given for immediate steps to be taken to resolve the issue.

“Before I took over as the Managing Director of the company on April 2 this year, there were many reports about the activities of the tributers.

I called a meeting and told them that anybody mining in the river bed will have any agreement they have with the company cancelled,” he said.

Mr Dadzie said GCD had a watertight monitoring system in place to ensure that the tributers under the company operated within the confines of the mining laws.

When asked why it took the chief of Adankrano to draw the attention of the company to the activities of the said tributer, he said whatever the lapses were, he had commenced processes to address them.

“I have asked GCD’s security to do an assessment of the current situation and report back to me but they are yet to give me the feedback,” he said.

When the Daily Graphic contacted the Chairman of the GCD Tributers Association, Douglas Kwame Affum, on the issue, he said although the said tributer — one of the association’s over 500 members — had mined close to the bank of the Birim River around Kade, the area had been reclaimed after the Chief raised concerns.

“We formed a committee and realised that he has diverted the right bank of the Birim River at Kade. He was asked to reclaim the land, and he has done so but the chief said he is responsible for the blockage of the river bed,” Mr Affum said.

He said the mining in the Birim river bed could not be attributed to the tributer at the centre of the issue because there were many illegal mining sites straddling the river.

Background

As part of renewed efforts to fight illegal mining, the government has revoked all small-scale mining licences issued by the previous administration after the December 7, 2024 polls.

The Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, Emmanuel Armah-Kofi Buah, set up a technical committee to review all existing small-scale mining licences to ensure that the holders of those leases were operating within the mining laws.

Additionally, intelligence-led operations and swoops have been carried out by a joint security team, which is comprised of the police, military and the rapid response team of the Forestry Commission, to clamp down on galamsey across the country.

Currently, environmentalists, civil society organisations and other stakeholders in the environment sector are mounting pressure on the government to declare a state of emergency over the galamsey scourge.

They are also demanding the revocation of the Environmental Protection (Mining in Forest Reserves) Regulations, 2022 (L.I. 2462), to halt mining activities in forest reserves.