Should mining threatening watersheds be banned to prevent Ghana from having to import potable water in future?

Dear critical-reader, the question we must ponder over at a time when climate change is impacting the Ghanaian countryside so negatively is: Should surface mining threatening watersheds be permanently banned to prevent our homeland Ghana from having to import potable water in future?

Whatever we do in our bankrupted Republic, as wise and aspirational Africans, we must never forget that despite the oft-repeated bogus claims about how beneficial mining is to Ghana, made by the few powerful and greedy individuals and corporate entities that profit mightily from ruinous surface mining in forest reserves, the plain truth is that as more and more tropical rainforests disappear worldwide, we must now draw a line in the sand here in Ghana, and decide that henceforth, we shall no longer allow miners to destroy the remainder of our priceless natural capital. Full stop.

At a time when climate change is impacting the natural environment more and more negatively, the ecosystem services provided by the remainder of our natural heritage, are clearly more valuable, in existential terms, than all the minerals underneath them combined, it ought to be pointed out. No question.

In that light, clearly, nothing (not even our extractive sector that provides some jobs for our teeming youth, and tax revenues to governments-of-the-day), is worth sacrificing the watersheds of our major river systems, for, oooo, Ghanafuor. Yoooooooo...

It is said that water, is life. Literally. Even little school children in our Republic, are intuitively aware that without access to sources of water, humans simply cannot survive as a species.

There is no question that if a cost benefit analysis is also done, today, dear critical-reader, it will prove beyond any shadow of doubt that all our national economy's manufacturing industries, which are dependent on the availability of regular water supplies, will thrive, expand and boost GDP growth significantly - and do so sufficiently enough to absorb most of the job losses that will occur, should logging, as well as both legal and illegal mining in all forest-belt areas, be banned totally, and said blanket ban is rigorously enforced by a new Homeland Force (to be established by merging all today's non-military security agencies, to become the fourth armed service of the Ghana Armed Forces).

Finally, dear critical-reader, it is in light of all the above, that as wise and aspirational Africans, at a time when climate change is negatively impacting our countryside areas, we must never allow fear of extractive sector job losses, to prevent us from banning surface mining in forest reserves across the entirety of the sovereign landmass of our Republic.

Better that, than end up at some point in time in the not too distant future, becoming a wretched povery-stricken nation (lumbered with a junk currency that is not accepted outside its borders, and a trade imbalance that makes hard currency hard to come by), which is forced to have to import water, as some flipant-geniuses are wont to say in defence of miners destroying forest reserves, when mining in forest belt areas that threaten watersheds, attract widespread public opprobrium. Full stop. Enough, really is enough, oooo, Ghanafuor. Yooooooo. A word to the wise...