If Prof Gyampoh and cohort aren’t remorseless hypocrites, who are they?

The ravenous Ghanaians and their criminally-minded foreign counterparts are bent on stealing our mineral resources, terrorising the indigenes, and at the same time destroying the lands and water bodies with an unabashed disgust.

I’m afraid, if we failed to sustain the fight against the seemingly insuperable illegal mining war, we risk a possible conflict between the incompliant galamseyers and the state futuristically.

According to the United Nations, since 1990, at least 18 violent conflicts have been instigated by the exploitation of natural resources, whether ‘high-value’ resources like timber, diamonds, gold, and oil, or scarce ones like fertile land and water’ (UN, 2017).

The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) emphasises that at least 40% of all intrastate conflicts have a link to natural resources.

The United Nations has since mandated a few peacekeeping missions with a view to helping the host country to manage its natural resources efficiently.

One such example is the 2003 UN Resolution 1509, which sought to help the war thorn Liberia to protect its natural resources from illegal miners (UNEP, 2017).

The other UN mandated peacekeeping mission was the 2010 Resolution 1925, which aimed to protect life and property in the Democratic Republic of Congo (UEP, 2017).

Much as I do not want to accept the widely held notion that politics is a dirty game, it would not be farfetched to suggest that the political terrain is full of manipulating geezers.

Suffice it to say, political manipulators are not limited to Africa. It is a global phenomenon, as a matter of fact.

However, in my humble view, it is our part of the world (Africa), where political gimmicks and insobrieties are so prevalent.

I presume, this is so because we have greater number of unlettered folks, many of whom cannot choose between tricksters and morally upright politicians.

Given the level of environmental degradation amid polluted river bodies, it is not out of place for a group of Ghanaians to come out and express their indignation and threaten to stage demonstrations or go on strike.

It was for that reason that I was in complete acquiescence with some concerned workers, including the University Teachers Association of Ghana who threatened to go on strike over the Akufo-Addo administration’s supposed lackadaisical approach in combating the galamsey menace.

So, the all-important question every concerned Ghanaian should be asking then is: have Proff Gyampo and cohort, who were extremely aggrieved and vociferous over the galamsey menace prior to the 2024 general elections seen the appalling scenes in our rivers and forests recently?

Perhaps, Proff Gyampo and cohort are enjoying the trappings of power and I guess have no time to ventilate their fury in condemnation over the galamsey menace.

Considering the devastation on our lands and river bodies, some of us are really struggling to comprehend how and why the Ghanaian authorities would refuse to use maximum force to flush out the villainous Ghanaian and their criminally-minded foreign counterparts, who are seizing our rural areaas, digging our gold, destroying the environment and worst of all terrorising the rural dwellers.

In spite of the unprecedented destruction of the environment, the officials of successive administrations, including the outgone Akufo-Addo administration refused to halt the activities of the stubbornly impenitent illegal miners.

It is absolutely true that potential economic benefits (employment, tax revenues and development outcomes) can be derived from small-scale mining sector in Ghana.

We cannot also ignore or deny the fact that small-scale mining is a significant contributor to the economic and social well-being of many people and households in rural, remote, and poor communities in Ghana.

Nevertheless, the way small-scale mining sector is being managed in Ghana, it does not look promising. The sector is being managed abysmally.

Somehow, the laws which govern the small-scale mining sector are confused and inconsistent. Needless to emphasise that all the attention is basically being focused on the large-scale mining sector, leaving the small-scale mining sector at a substantial disadvantage.

Suffice it to say, the effective implementation of regulations and fortifications towards the developmental potential of the sector must be the topmost importance to the regulating authorities.

Unfortunately, however, societies at large has been both positively and negatively affected by small-scale mining.

The positive effects include the extraction of ores from small deposits or from tailings which provide the rural folks and other small scale miners with sustainable incomes.

On the other hand, the negative effects include, among other things, environmental degradation, water pollution, the release of mercury and other toxic and hazardous wastes into the environment, and unforeseen social tensions that can lead to civil unrest.

However, on the preponderance of probability, the negative effects outweigh the positive effects, and therefore it is prudent for any serious, committed and forward-thinking leader to put tabs on the activities of the unscrupulous illegal miners.

That being said, the conscienceless illegal miners are back in business despite President Mahama promising solemnly to stop the activities of the stubbornly impenitent galamseyers on assumption of office. How unfortunate?

Mephitic mercury use in artisanal and small-scale gold mining is extremely harmful and its health effects on society are significantly worrying(WHO,2017).

The problems stemming from mercury use don’t stop at exposure from inhalation. Once used for gold processing, mercury-contaminated water is often dumped on the ground, polluting Ghana’s rivers and lakes, and poisoning its fish and those who eat them(HRW, 2014).

As a bio-accumulative and toxic pollutant, when released into the atmosphere, mercury dissolves in water laid sediments and it can be consumed by fish and then ended up in the food chain of humans (Merem, Wesley, Isokpehi et al. 2016).

In that sense, toxic mercury pollution poses an enormous public health hazard and environmental risk(Merem, Wesley, Isokpehi et al. 2016).

Exposure to mercury – even small amounts – may cause serious health problems, and is a threat to the development of the child in utero and early in life.

A typical example of toxic mercury contamination impacting negatively on public health happened in Minamata, Japan, between 1932 and 1968, where a factory producing acetic acid discharged waste liquid into Minamata Bay.

The discharge included high concentrations of methylmercury. The bay was rich in fish and shellfish, providing the main livelihood for local residents and fishermen from other areas.

Somehow, many years passed without no one realising that the fish were contaminated with mercury, and that it was causing a strange disease in the local community and in other districts.

At least 50 000 people were affected to some extent and more than 2000 cases of Minamata disease were identified.

Unfortunately, Minamata disease escalated in the 1950s, with severe cases of brain damage, paralysis, incoherent speech and delirium (WHO, 2017).

Minamata disease, also known as Chisso-Minamata disease, is a neurological syndrome caused by severe mercury poisoning. Symptoms include ataxia, numbness in the hands and feet, general muscle weakness, narrowing of the field of vision and damage to hearing and speech. In extreme cases, insanity, paralysis, coma and death follow within weeks of the onset of symptoms. A congenital form of the disease can also affect foetuses (See: www.bu.edu/sustainability/minamata-disease).

Let’s face it, the exposure to noxious mercury in Ghana as a result of illegal mining activities remains a serious health problem and we cannot continue to live in a denial.

K. Badu, UK.
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