Tama Foundation calls for urgent reclamation of degraded mining sites in northern Ghana

Tama Foundation Universal, an extractive-centred CSO, working in Northern Ghana, has called for the urgent need to restore vegetations at degraded mining sites in the north.

The Executive Director of the NGO, Dr. Chrys Anab, who made the call, lamented that large tracts of lands have been destroyed by illegal miners and left unreclaimed, a situation which posed a serious threat to the fragile vegetation cover.

For him, when all the degraded lands are restored, it could be used for agricultural activities to help address food and nutritional security challenges in the area.

“Already, there is competition for arable lands for agricultural activities in Northern Ghana, especially in the Upper East Region where the population is very dense with few arable lands. If urgent steps are not taken to reclaim all the degraded lands in the next few years, we may not get lands to cultivate food crops” he noted.

Forum 

Dr Anab made the call in an interview with Graphic Online in Tamale on the sidelines of a high-level forum on natural resource governance in Northern Ghana.

Funded by the Ford Foundation, the forum brought together participants included personnel from ministries, departments, agencies, local authorities, CSOs and traditional leaders who deliberated on ways to help address challenges facing the natural resource.

It was also used to disseminate findings of research on natural resource conflicts, water quality at illegal mining areas and the impact of mining on the north.

Urgent action 

Dr Anab expressed worry over the continues destruction of the environment and called on the government to scale up the land reclamation programme to the north to help restore the environment.

He said the impact of illegal mining on the north was very severe just as the south, for which reason same attention should be given to it.

Social inequalities 

For his part, the Board Chairman of Tama Foundation Universal, Charles Abugri, said the organisation has for the past three years, partnered with the Ford Foundation to implement a Natural Resource Accountability in Northern Ghana (NaRAING) project with the goal to promote the judicious, transparent, and accountable use of mineral resources.

That, he said, would help address social inequalities, conserve the environment and protect the human rights of people living in mineral-rich communities in Northern Ghana.

While thanking the Ford Foundation and partners for the support in implementing the project, he called for concerted efforts address the environmental challenges while promoting responsible mining to improve on the lives of the people.

Illegal mining

Vast swathes of farmlands, forest and off-forest reserves have been laid bare in some mining communities in the North East, Savannah, Upper West and Upper East regions.

While some residents, particularly illustrious young men very often falls into abandoned pits and deep gullies, vegetative cover is begging for survival.

The areas include Mamprugu/Moaduri, Bawku West, Talensi, Wa West, Wa East and Bole districts as well as the Kasena-Nankana, Jirapa and Sissala East municipalities, all in the five regions of the north.

Writer’s email:mohammed.fugu@graphic.com.gh