The Truth About Galamsey in Ghana: A National Betrayal and a Threat to Human Survival

Ghana once practiced responsible underground mining while protecting forests, water bodies, and fertile lands. Today, however, the nation is bleeding from the wounds of surface mining, popularly called galamsey.

A small-scale activity has evolved into a neo-liberal state-sponsored environmental crime destroying entire ecosystems and poisoning generations of Ghanaians.

From Responsible Mining to Ecological Disaster-

Ghana’s shift from underground to mass surface mining did not occur naturally.

It reflects external economic pressures and internal political compromise, echoing the colonial mindset birthed at the Berlin Conference of 1884–85—a period when Africa’s resources were mapped, invaded, and looted.

Surface mining has:

• Destroyed major rivers like Pra, Offin, Ankobra, and Birim.
• Polluted the food chain with mercury and cyanide.
• Displaced communities and collapsed rural agriculture.
• Turned lush forests into wastelands.

As an African proverb warns:
“When the last tree dies, the last man dies.”

The Galamsey Cartel- A Crime Protected by Political Power.

The truth must be told: galamsey survives because powerful people want it to.

Despite government taskforces and slogans, galamasey continues because it is protected by powerful interests.

Investigations and public commentary consistently link illegal mining networks to:

• Political actors and party financiers.
• Security operatives.
• Traditional leaders.
• Foreign mining syndicates.
• Corrupt officials within regulatory agencies.

This destruction continues because those entrusted to protect Ghana are instead selling the nation’s destiny for personal gain.

The continued environmental destruction is a betrayal of national trust and future generations.

Former President Jerry John Rawlings once said:

“You are either part of the problem or part of the solution.”

Sadly, too many leaders today are part of the problem.

Not All Have Fallen - Heroes of Resistance-

Amid the betrayal, some traditional leaders have stood firm to defend the land and the unborn:

Voices of Courage and Hope-

• Dormaahene, Osagyefo Oseadeeyo Dr. Nana Agyemang Badu II, vowed to arrest anyone who engages in galamsey in Dormaa Traditional Area.
• Nana Quasie Essiem IV of Whindo (Effia Kwesimintsim) rejected a GH¢2 million bribe from illegal miners and seized their excavators, declaring:

“I need money, we all need money, but I will not mortgage the future of my people.”

These individuals deserve national recognition—not politicians who fund destruction and call it development.

Galamsey is Environmental Terrorism
Illegal mining is not just unlawful—it is environmental terrorism.

Ghana is on the brink of a public health catastrophe similar to Minamata Disease in Japan (1950s), where mercury-poisoned fish crippled millions of people with birth defects, neurological disorders, blindness, and deformities.

Today, mercury levels in Ghanaian food and water are rising dangerously.

The consequences in Ghana are already visible, and if nothing changes, future generations will inherit a poisoned land.

Who Opened the Gates to This Doom?
Evidence indicates that policy failures enabled galamsey, with weak laws and poor governance paved the way for this devastation.

Allegations of policy mismanagement include-

• Granting over 1,600 sq km of virgin land to Mining without Ghana securing the mandatory 10% state equity
• Failure to enforce Act 465 ( State Participation in Mining).
• Passing of the Minerals and Mining Act (Act 703, 2006) weakened environmental protections.
• Mining concessions granted in protected forest reserves.
• Loss of over 30,000 football fields worth of forest to deforestation.
• Ignoring the Minerals Commission’s objections and expert warnings.

This created the legal environment for foreign control of Ghana’s resources.

The Way Forward-
Ghana Must Choose Survival Over Greed:
To save Ghana from irreversible destruction, action—not slogans—is required.

Key Solutions
1. Strictly declare Galamsey a National Security Threat by Law-

Treat it as organized crime and environmental terrorism.

2. Establish the Ghana Environmental Recovery Fund

Funded by:

• Mining companies.
• Determined fine on identified political figures who ignored expertise advice on mining agreements.
• Sales of confiscation of illegal mining assets.

3. Strict Enforcement-

• Maximum prison sentences for galamsey kingpins.
• Asset seizure and prosecution of collaborators.
• No political interference in prosecutions.

4. Water and Forest Restoration-

• Support EPA's Nano-liquid decontamination technology.
• Conscientiously reforest destroyed biodiversity zones.
• Strictly ban mining in all water basins

5. Provide Alternatives-

• Youth employment in agro-processing and reforestation industries.
• Ethical and state of the art small-scale mining initiatives.

7.Empower EPA and Forestry Commission with full enforcement powers, and compromised staff to the topmost, be outrightly dismissed from the service.

6. Name, Shame, and Celebrate-

• Publish financiers of illegal mining.
• Honour environmental defenders like Dormaahene and Nana Quasie Essiem IV.

Conclusion:
Are We Accountable to the Future?
We are temporary custodians of the land - not owners..

Galamsey is a betrayal of blood, ancestry, and nationhood.

Silence in the face of this destruction is complicity.

Galamsey is environmental terrorism.
It threatens our future, our dignity, and our very survival as a nation.

Silence is no longer an option.
What we destroy today will destroy us tomorrow.

The future is watching.
Ghana must rise.
JM is the hope - the battle outcry against galamsey must not be slackened for a second but pursued with relentless zeal.

Hashtags:
#StopGalamseyNow #ProtectOurWater #JusticeForGhana #SaveOurForests #EnvironmentalPatriotism

Benjamin Anyagre Aziginaateeg,
Chief Executive Officer,
AfriKan Continental Union Consult -ACUC-
Ghana.

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