World Food Day 2025: of ‘poverty and soup hunger’, poisoned water and foodstuffs

In my part of Ghana, an out-of-town visitor enquiring about a local’s health would likely hear the amusing response, “oh, as for us, our problem here, what is killing us, is poverty and soup hunger (‘hia ne nkwan kᴐm’.)”

Well, as the English proverb says, ‘many a true word is spoken in jest’, so sometimes the response might not be a joke after all, but a rather diplomatic way of describing a needy situation, summed up by “soup hunger”. Thus, a hint to the visitor that ‘something’ is expected.

As soup accompanies the now general Ghanaian staple, fufuo, to some people it represents ‘food’; thus, the lack of soup implies a situation of serious deprivation.

This week, that humorous expression ‘soup hunger’ came to mind in relation to World Food Day (WFD), observed on October 16. It’s a day set aside as a reminder of the importance of food. The 2025 theme is "Hand in Hand for Better Foods and a Better Future".

“World Food Day was established by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) on October 16, 1945, to commemorate the organization's founding and to raise awareness of global hunger and the need for collective action for food security. The day serves as a global call for action to ensure everyone has access to nutritious food and to promote sustainable and resilient food systems.”

Thus, this year also marks the 80th anniversary of the FAO, “highlighting 80 years of collective action in the global fight to end hunger”.

Undoubtedly, nobody should need a reminder that food is a necessity for survival. Nevertheless, this annual global commemoration is meaningful because although some don’t have the ‘soup hunger’ expressed in my Dormaa people’s quaint metaphor, others worldwide have very little, or cannot count on even one good meal a day.

Conceivably, soup hunger also implies food quality issues. In Ghana, a country seriously battling illegal mining, with chemicals-polluted water, contaminated soil affecting food crops, can “better foods and a better future" still be guaranteed?

Illegal mining is the official term for the age-old practice, now better known as galamsey (or ‘gala’), reportedly a corruption of the phrase, ‘gather them and sell’ – an unmistakable signal of the intent, the evil practice it has become.

How can all join hands to battle the illegality threatening Ghana’s potable water and safe farm produce, when now gold fever has blinded so many to the threat to the survival of all? The current frightening farm produce situation is summed up in this recent media headline: “We Are Eating Poisoned Food”.

Such is the alarming state of most of the river bodies, polluted by the chemicals used to extract the gold, that there are urgent and persistent calls for President John Mahama to immediately declare a State of Emergency (SoE) in the worst affected areas to stop the destruction by the environmental criminals.

Before the galamsey crisis, for some of us the concern had been the deteriorating quality and safety of farm produce, notably yam and vegetables, the effect of unsafe use of fertilizer and other agrochemicals.

The following are excerpts from a 2016 article I published elsewhere on the topic:

“Just what is happening with our yam and farm produce in general? Last year, I complained in this space that now even pepper has lost its bite. But the (quick spoiling) yam matter is equally disturbing.

“What if the problem crops and vegetables are the result of wrong application of farm chemicals by non-literate farmers? What if the bad produce is the result of the inadequate expertise, or training, of farmers in the use of the agrochemicals to protect their crops from weeds or pests?

“Rural folk and the farmers themselves who are compelled to use them, have been complaining for ages about the negative effect on crops grown with chemicals, but who is listening?” (The poison we eat: Who should take action? Native Daughter column, The Mirror weekly, July 15, 2016.)

Now, in 2025, beyond agrochemicals errors, as experts confirm, there is even more reason for anxiety about food crops safety: river bodies and soil dangerously polluted by galamsey.

There was scepticism in some quarters when President Mahama invited civil society groups to a meeting on Friday, October 3, 2025, for an “Engagement on illegal mining”. Still, others had hoped that the meeting would generate, as I wrote recently, “everlasting, tough remedial actions”.

Notably, one strategy reportedly revealed by the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) for purifying galamsey polluted river bodies, initially by laboratory experiment, was termed “dechemicalization” by the Authority’s CEO, Professor Nana Ama Browne Klutse. However, that word immediately generated controversy, regarding its suitability, as well as the efficacy of the method, highlighting the general distress over the galamsey danger to water and foodstuffs.

During a TV discussion on ‘Newsfile’, (Joy News, October 6, 2025) panellist Dr Ekpor Anyimah-Ackah, a lecturer at the University of Education, Winneba, mounted a strong stance against the use of the term ‘dechemicalization’. He said as used by the EPA, the word “was – and remains – scientifically inappropriate” and urged the EPA “to discontinue its use. Instead, they should adopt a more accurate terminology such as ‘detoxify’, ‘decontaminate’ or ‘remediate’ – terms widely recognized in environmental health and science.”

Indeed, so passionate was his submission on the programme, that later he issued a public apology to President Mahama and Prof Klutse. Nevertheless, he explained to me: “My apology was solely for my tone, which may have come across as aggressive.”

His stand on a SoE is unequivocal: “As a lecturer and food-nutrition scientist, and on behalf of the University Teachers Association of Ghana academic community, I say with absolute conviction “a declaration of emergency in the hardest-hit mining hotspots is not an option to debate – it is an imperative we can no longer postpone,” Dr Anyimah-Ackah stressed.

To my mind, despite the clear good intentions of the EPA experimentation, the dechemicalization strategy sounds like fetching water with a basket, colander or strainer. The laboratory process may get the toxic elements out of the water and make it safe, as has been explained, but how effective would that laboratory method be in flowing water?

Equally important, at what cost to the nation? Not forgetting that currently the Ghana Water Company Ltd has had to suspend work in a number of treatment plants because the pollution has become too much, and cleaning not cost effective.

And what about the already contaminated soil whose safety has been destroyed by the mining activities, and therefore now rendering foodstuffs unsafe?

Interestingly, the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources has revealed that a colossal USD $10 billion would be needed to reclaim the identified galamsey degraded lands! Where, and how, is Ghana going to raise this amount?!

Therefore, evidently, the cause of the problem, illegal mining, is what needs to be tackled ASAP!

Fortunately, other scientists and environmental activists too, have provided plenty of information about the danger posed by illegal mining to water and food crops – as well as what needs to be done.

Senior Policy and Research Advisor at the Chamber of Agribusiness Ghana, Dr. Kojo Ahiakpa, recently warned that galamsey, poses an existential threat to Ghana’s food systems, water bodies, and public health.

Speaking during a NorvanReports discussion on the theme ‘Farming at the Crossroads: How Galamsey Threatens Ghana’s Farmlands and Food Security’, Dr. Ahiakpa described the situation as a “state-supervised ecocide” that demands urgent national action. His presentation generated the blunt headline: “We Are Eating Poisoned Food’.

He said the contamination of major river bodies in the northern and savannah belts, where a significant portion of Ghana’s food is produced, has led to widespread pollution of vegetables, grains, and livestock consumed in urban centres such as Accra and Kumasi.

“The water we drink in Accra, no matter how purified, contains heavy metals that cannot be removed by the Ghana Water Company. Vegetables irrigated with water from rivers such as the White Volta and Black Volta are poisoned before they even reach our markets,” he said.

Dr. Ahiakpa explained that nine out of the 13 heavily polluted regions in Ghana are considered the country’s food basket, producing staples such as maize, yam, rice, and vegetables. With irrigation systems dependent on contaminated rivers, he cautioned that food supplies to the south are increasingly unsafe.

Beyond crop production, livestock and poultry in northern Ghana are also at risk.

He cited recent medical reports linking heavy metal exposure to public health crises, including spontaneous abortions, stressing that “none of us is spared in this crisis.”

Dr Ahiakpa also highlighted the environmental destruction caused by galamsey, including the diversion of river courses, flooding of farmlands, and the cutting down of cocoa and maize farms for illegal mining activities.

Calling the situation a national security threat, he argued that Ghana has reached the point where decisive and drastic measures are needed.

Similarly, longtime environmental campaigner lawyer Awula Serwah of the Eco-Conscious Citizens organisation, in a recent interview with 3News, drew attention to the alarming health and environmental consequences of galamsey, including rising kidney disease cases, premature deaths, birth deformities, and poisoned water bodies. According to her, over 60 percent of Ghana’s water bodies have been contaminated by mining activities.

She cited figures from the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital, which has recorded a fourfold increase in kidney disease cases, as evidence that the crisis is spiraling.

With vivid imagery, she stated: “The house is burning, and we are waiting for it to be reduced to ashes before we act. Water is life.” She summed it up thus: “We will not die if we don’t have gold, but we will die without water.”

For its part, the Trades Union Congress (TUC) last week issued a strong warning that Ghana could soon face a nationwide water shortage if the government fails to take decisive action to halt galamsey.

The union raised the alarm during a fact-finding mission to assess the state of water treatment plants in the Kwanyako, Brim, and Akyem areas of the Central and Eastern Regions.

Speaking to JoyNews, the TUC Secretary-General, Joshua Ansah, described the situation as “deeply troubling.”

He called on President John Mahama to declare a state of emergency to confront the illegal mining crisis head-on, warning that the TUC will be compelled to take “a drastic decision” if the government fails to act.

“Galamsey must stop, and it must stop now,” Mr Ansah stressed.

It was gratifying to learn last month that “the Government has declared all water bodies and forest reserves as security zones in the latest measure to root out illegal mining in the country,” as announced by Minister for Lands and Mineral Resources, Mr. Emmanuel Armah-Kofi Buah.

It’s also encouraging that there is a “National Anti-Illegal Mining Operations Secretariat (NAIMOS), a special-purpose unit established under the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources “to coordinate, monitor, and lead intelligence-led field operations against illegal mining (galamsey) activities across Ghana.”

However, how effective can these measures be, against the recalcitrant galamsey operators, some of them fellow Ghanaians assisting foreigners; and well-armed too, to resist any challenge to their illegal mining?

Should they be allowed to endanger all of Ghana? They demonstrate their infuriating audacity, pepper-in-wound defiance, in videos posted online, posing for the cameras with impunity.

There is an argument that unemployment is the reason for the rise in illegal mining, but since when has unemployment become an acceptable excuse for crime?

Remarkably, despite the long and growing list of organisations calling for a SoE, President Mahama has declared his reluctance to do that, it should be only as “a last resort” – though his party, the National Democratic Congress while in opposition had been strongly championing the need for a SoE.

What I must have missed somehow is their explanation for the change of mind, the present-day opposition to declaring a State of Emergency.

Anyhow, to my mind, the fight has to be an all-out offensive, with chiefs, youth and communities too in the forefront, to complement other measures. For us in Ghana, the WFD theme must relate to ensuring potable water and safe foodstuffs, free from galamsey poisons, for our better future.

And, in my opinion, Ms Serwah’s compelling message is good enough to serve as a slogan for a national call to action: “We will not die if we don’t have gold, but we will die without water.”

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