Galamsey should be banned and not encouraged

Mr. George Mireku Duker, Member of Parliament for Tarkwa/Nsuem in the Western Region, one of the communities in this country most devastated by the activities of illegal mining, euphemistically referred to as galamsey, says the operation should be legalized.

His argument is that if the illegal trade is legalized, operators could be regularized and controlled and that would reduce the harm the operation causes to mankind.

Read the lips of the Honourable Member of Parliament: “One sure way to deal with the galamsey menace is first to legalize the operation; put them into groups and license them. We can assign people to monitor them to ensure that they conform to all the laid down rules,” Mr. Duker told an Accra private newspaper.

The Chronicle sympathizes with the Member of Parliament, whose constituency is among the most abused by galamsey operators in the country.

We dare state though that, the solution prescribed by the Member of Parliament, amounts to sanctioning murder in this society.

In plain language, the MP is asking for the gradual extinction of Ghana as an entity. Galamsey is a very terrible killer and should be abolished, period!

The MP may mean well by proffering a solution to a terrible problem in society. But his pronouncement amounts to worsening an already bad solution. Galamsey is killing all of us slowly and should be abolished.

Any person who has used the bridge over the Birim River at Ayinam in the Eastern Region, or observed the colour of River Pra at Beposo or any of the long route the river takes to the sea at Shama, must have a fair idea of how galamsey has devastated the river and many other water bodies in the country.

Yesterday, the state-run Daily Graphic published the findings of a tour to water installation sites operated by the Ghana Water Company at Daboase and Bosomase in the Western Rdegion, from where water is pumped to feed treatment plants serving the Sekondi-Takoradi Metropolis.

The findings are as shocking as they are sickening. The activities of galamsey operators have so contaminated the Pra River that it has virtually led to rationing of water in Sekondi-Takoradi and its surrounding areas.

“Basically,” said Mr. Duker, “we pump about six million gallons of water daily from the Daboasi intake point. The average daily production is 5.5 million gallons. However, as we speak now, pumping has dropped to about two million gallons.”

The reason is simple. Galamasey operators have so diverted the flow of the mighty river that pumping has become a very difficult assignment. That is not all. The quality of the water has been compromised by illegal miners contaminating the quality with dangerous chemicals like mercury and synide.

Galamsey operation is dangerous to our health as a nation. It is not only River Pra and its main tributary the Birim River that are contaminated and their flows tampered with.

In Ghana, almost every river known to meander through gold and diamond deposits is at risk from these illegal miners.

The Almighty Volta, this nation's biggest river and major source of electricity, has been affected around the Bui Dam Project area. That place has now been invaded by illegal miners from Ghana and its immediate border countries.

That is not the only danger from illegal gold and diamond prospectors.

Large acreage of the golden pod (cocoa) have been wiped out by illegal miners. In some extreme cases, owners of cash and food crops are known to have been killed to enable these illegal operators have their way.

Gold and diamond anchor the country's riches. Of late, however, the two precious metals have become the curse of society, as illegal miners tear down the vegetation in a mad rush to reach their hidden riches.

We cannot afford to legalize galamsey. Asking for legalization of illegal mining is akin to a call for making prostitution a legal trade on the basis that unemployable young women could sell their bodies to keep body and soul together.

The call is dangerous and should not be entertained. Galamsey is a menace that ought to be fought and not legalized. Operators ought to be arrested and handed long custodial sentences.