When activist Oliver Barker Vormawor noticed experiences in September that Ghana’s water company wouldn’t be capable to provide some elements of the nation with water because of excessive contamination of essential rivers from small-scale mining actions, he knew he needed to do one thing.
Later that month, Vormawor and dozens of different involved Ghanaians took to the streets within the capital metropolis, Accra, to protest in opposition to what they mentioned was President Nana Akufo-Addo’s inaction to cease a “looming environmental disaster”. They have been decided to place the matter on the poll forward of the hotly contested December general elections. However reasonably than get a response to their calls for, Vormawor and several other of his comrades have been arrested and imprisoned for weeks on fees of unlawful meeting.
Now, though Akufo-Addo’s New Patriotic Occasion (NPP) was voted out, activists like Vormawor say they’ve simply as little religion within the new president, John Mahama, and his potential to maintain the mounting air pollution of Ghana’s rivers and soil in verify.
“There isn’t any roadmap but from Mahama on find out how to sort out the issue,” Vormawor, who as soon as served on the United Nations as a authorized officer, advised Al Jazeera. “It’s actually troublesome to say that his authorities will probably be extra aggressive on this as a result of even because the opposition get together, they have been very tentative and uncomfortable taking on the difficulty,” he added, referring to Mahama’s Nationwide Democratic Congress (NDC).
Previously known as the “Gold Coast”, the West African nation is bending underneath stress from widespread, incessant small-scale mining of the shiny steel. A lot of that artisanal exercise falls underneath what locals name “galamsey”, or in full “collect them and promote”. The time period as soon as referred to unlawful mining, carried out by largely untrained younger women and men, however now extra loosely encompasses licensed small-scale operations that mine unsustainably.
Officers allegedly complicit in galamsey
Galamsey has been in follow for a few years, however costs of gold that rose globally to an all-time excessive (near $3,000 per gram) in late 2024 induced a corresponding surge in unlawful mining throughout Ghana, and in impact, extra intense devastation of water our bodies.
Small-scale miners use plenty of water by digging up soil round riverbeds in forested areas and washing it off to disclose gold ore. They use poisonous chemical compounds corresponding to mercury and cyanide to separate the gold from the ore, and people chemical compounds movement into rivers that tons of of communities rely upon for consuming and home use. Some individuals say they earn about $70 to $100 a day.
By 2017, greater than 60 p.c of the nation’s water our bodies have been already polluted by mercury and different heavy metals, turning once-clear rivers a murky brown, in response to the nation’s Water Assets Fee. The chemical compounds, which might injury lungs, are affecting hundreds of acres of farmlands. Ghana’s Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) mentioned it misplaced 2 p.c of the whole cocoa cultivation space to mining. Some farmers allege that galamsey operators purchase off their land or intimidate them into promoting.
“It is a downside that has been occurring for many years now, nevertheless it’s an issue that’s escalating quick and this has created a way amongst Ghanaians that we’re operating out of time to guard our nation and our individuals,” Ewurabena Yanyi-Akofur, nation director of the nongovernmental organisation WaterAid, advised Al Jazeera.
“Whereas unlawful gold mining was taking place primarily within the south of the nation, our analysis reveals that it’s now endemic within the north. The presence of mercury and different toxins in water is resulting in pores and skin illnesses and different well being crises,” she added.
In a 2024 report, WaterAid warned that Ghana might need to import water by 2030 in a business-as-usual state of affairs as consuming water sources shrink.
Activists are notably offended at LI 2462, an Akufo-Addo-era legislation that handed in November 2022, which allowed for mining concessions to be allotted within the nation’s biodiversity hotspots, together with protected forests. A earlier coverage restricted mining in forests and guarded reserves to about 2 p.c of their complete space.
Many activists on the time denounced the legislation and known as consideration to the truth that the nation misplaced the equal of 30,000 soccer fields to deforestation for logging, agriculture, and unlawful mining of gold and different minerals like bauxite that yr.
Nonetheless, the federal government pushed forward with the legislation and proceeded to approve mining licences – for exploration, industrial operations, and small-scale mining, at an unprecedented fee. The place officers gave out an estimated 90 licences between 1988 and early 2017, not less than 2,000 extra got out between September 2017 and January 2025, in response to data from the Ghana Mining Repository. That interval falls underneath Akufo-Addo’s tenure. Most licences have been for small-scale mines, and key reserves just like the Nkrabia Forest Reserve, west of Accra, and the Boin Tano Reserve, situated within the nation’s Western Area, have been amongst these allotted.
Anger in opposition to the Akufo-Addo authorities intensified after it surfaced that a number of the firms newly licensed underneath LI 2462 belonged to high-placed politicians and members of Akufo-Addo’s NNP get together and that a few of these individuals have been additionally operating unlawful mines.
Folks in Ghana are protesting unlawful gold mining, which has poisoned over 60% of the nation’s our bodies of water.
If unlawful mining continues on the present fee, specialists say all the nation could also be importing water by 2030. pic.twitter.com/EOIQB7Oh3w
— AJ+ (@ajplus) October 25, 2024
In April 2023, an explosive report by former Setting Minister Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng to Akufo-Addo leaked to the general public. In it, Frimpong-Boateng accused “many get together officers … their associates, private assistants, brokers, kinfolk” of partaking in unlawful mining. He accused, amongst others, Gabby Asare Otchere-Darko, an influential businessman and relative of Akufo-Addo, of interfering within the arrest of mining firms that destroyed forests.
“It was an open secret that they have been utilizing this as a method to increase cash for the get together, that officers would get their very own little corners,” Vormawor, the activist, advised Al Jazeera. Activists like him say the proliferation of small-scale mining attracted extra unlawful mines, as the federal government didn’t set requirements and guarantee supervision.
The Akufo-Addo authorities denied the allegations levelled within the Frimpong-Boateng report and mentioned it was a list of “private grievances” with no proof. In October 2024, the administration deployed the navy throughout water our bodies within the nation to crack down on unlawful miners underneath a particular “Operation Halt”.
New president, however little hope
Nonetheless, the outcomes of galamsey are obvious. On January 2, the Ghana water company once more shut down a water remedy plant, this time within the western Tarkwa-Nsuaem area, because of extreme air pollution of the River Bonsa, which offers consuming water for greater than 200,000 individuals within the space. It was the second time in 5 months authorities have been pressured to chop provide.
President Mahama, who was sworn in for a second time into workplace on January 7, has promised to “reset” Ghana and take care of unlawful mining.
In an interview with Voice of America days after his sweeping win within the December elections, Mahama mentioned his authorities would prioritise passing a legislation to ban mining in forest reserves and areas near water our bodies. He additionally promised that his administration would work with the nation’s Environmental Safety Company (EPA) to scrub up polluted rivers of effluents and heavy metals.
Nonetheless, the president stopped wanting promising to reverse the small-scale licences not too long ago permitted, or to place a maintain on new concessions, declaring that it offers a method of livelihood.
“Folks want to tell apart between small-scale mining and unlawful mining: small-scale mining is authorized,” the president mentioned. “There are methods of doing it with out destroying the setting in Canada, Australia, and the US. Expertise exists. So why don’t we … prepare our individuals to do mining in a means that’s secure for the setting? We’re keen to think about these issues.”
Mahama first led the federal government for 4 years between 2012 and 2016. At the moment, galamsey was already a difficulty, though his administration is credited for banning mining in forest reserves.
Nonetheless, some accused Mahama’s administration of failing to verify the inflow of Chinese language nationals who poured into Ghana to spend money on small-scale mining tools corresponding to soil excavators and who labored alongside Ghanaian locals. In 2013, the Ghana Immigration Service deported greater than 4,500 Chinese language nationals after raids on unlawful mines. Now, a lot of the unlawful mining is finished by Ghanaians.
Activist Vormawor mentioned he doesn’t anticipate a lot from the Mahama authorities due to his administration’s “weak motion” in his first presidency. The president, he mentioned, must repeal the controversial Akufo-Addo legislation and several other licences and declare a state of emergency. With out these measures, Vormawor mentioned, he is not going to cease protesting.
“Sure, there’s small-scale mining and there’s unlawful mining, however most of it’s merely irresponsible mining,” the activist mentioned. “The work doesn’t finish but as a result of there’s a looming disaster, and we should draw a line between individuals having a livelihood and damaging the setting.”
