"Galamsey" In Ghana - The Good, The Bad And The Ugly

"Galamsey" local parlance used to describe small scale illegal mining in Ghana has been a national headache for Ghana since the 1970s and the reasons are not farfetched. The rampaging effects of galamsey on our environment notably our lands, water bodies and forests, the health, safety and security issues of galamsey operatives themselves as well as the upsurge in social vices in galamsey communities underscore the national attention galamsey continues to court year after year.

Ghana is currently the tenth largest producer of gold in the world and second in Africa only after South Africa. Gold is the second major export commodity of Ghana after cocoa and galamsey contribute about 35% of all gold exported out of the country. Most of the gold obtained through galamsey is exported illegally.

Nobody knows when exactly galamsey started in Ghana but the fact is it started in the then Gold Coast a very long time ago. Indeed it predates 1471 when the first Europeans, the Portuguese set foot on our land at Elmina. When they arrived here due to the language barrier Silent trade was adopted both as a form of communication and trade. Our forefathers and their European counterparts exchanged various goods among themselves.

One commodity that featured prominently in the silent trade was gold. It is therefore not surprising that Ghana was named the Gold Coast by the Europeans and this name was used until 1957 when the country gained independence from the British. Ghana has therefore been identified with gold for a very long time and rightly so because a lot of gold has been produced in the country since time immemorial.

It is worthy to note that during the era of silent trade there was no single mining industry in the country and that presupposes that all the gold in the system then was obtained through small scale/artisanal mining currently referred to as illegal small scale mining or galamsey. The rippling economic effect of the proceeds of galamsey within the Ghanaian economy cannot be underestimated.

It is by virtue of these staggering facts that in Ghana galamsey and mining in general have been likened to the proverbial Akan 'Santrofi Anoma' a bird which carries with it misfortune when it is brought home but carries away a delicacy when it is made to escape the fowler's net. To "galamseyers" that is those who are engaged in small scale illegal mining the trade is not only a survival mechanism but also a necessary evil without which they would virtually fail to exist on the surface of the planet earth. The trickle down effect of the benefits of galamsey to the dependents of galamseyers and it's multiplier effect within the local economy cannot be overemphasized.

Government after government have attempted to fight against the galamsey menace albeit unsuccessfully. The more government tried the more the problem exacerbated. By 2017 the galamsey conundrum had almost become so intractable to the extent that a media coalition against galamsey was formed and a strong movement against galamsey was ignited precipitating a general groundswell of discontentment against galamsey amongst the vast majority of the Ghanaian populace save those who benefit directly or indirectly from galamsey. The general consensus was that we were on the brink of an imminent disaster if immediate steps were not taken to salvage the situation.

The government of the Republic of Ghana led by His Excellency President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo on his own volition and conviction and in response to the general expectations of the Ghanaian people declared war on illegal small scale mining or galamsey after the several failed attempts by previous regimes to fight the canker. To demonstrate his commitment towards the fight his excellency the president went to parliament and stood on the floor of the house and quite unceremoniously and uncharacteristic of any sitting President threw his presidency on the line as far as the war against galamsey is concerned. His intentions were clear and genuine. He was very clear in his mind exactly what he wanted to achieve - to clamp down on galamsey and it's operatives and bring the illegal trade down to the barest minimum and if possible reverse its negative environmental effects. There was absolutely no doubt that the intentions of the President were good, he was commited to ensuring the war on galamsey is won by hook or crook. To this end Operation Vanguard (OV) a joint military and police surveillance team was quickly formed to crackdown on illegal small scale miners or galamseyers. An Inter Ministerial Committee on Illegal Mining (IMCIM) was formed to coordinate the activities of Operation Vanguard. In time the IMCIM also constituted another task force codenamed Operation GALAMSTOP to complement the activities of Operation Vanguard.

Three years down the line the challenges which necessitated the war against illegal mining to a large extent continue to exist. Our water bodies are still muddy, our forests are being depleted at an alarming rate and people continue to engage in illegal mining with careless and reckless abandon. Ghanaians are obviously at a loss as to what exactly has happened to the war against illegal small scale mining declared by his excellency the President.

As a person born, bred and 'buttered' in a mining community, currently working and in fact living in a mining community I can say without any fear of equivocation that we have indeed lost the war against illegal mining because of unbridled and stinking greed, avarice corruption, parochial interests and personal aggrandizement. There are a litany of stories of extortion of monies from illegal miners by operatives of both Operations Vanguard and GALAMSTOP who rather protect illegal miners to continue engaging in their illegal mining activities almost with impunity a situation which some pundits have described as "regulators becoming perpetrators". It is a sad story of the fish being rotten from the head to to the tail. Seized excavators and other seized equipment are allegedly lost in the process making national headlines but who is to blame? The accusations and counter accusations from government officials who are supposed to be the generals at the warfront is quite appalling if not shameful.

Obviously we cannot blame His Excellency the President who meant so well for the country to the extent of throwing his presidency on the line to win this arduous fight. We should blame ourselves as a corrupt bunch of greedy people who are prepared to even "cut our tongue and chew it" and damn the consequences, that is the exact and the major reason why we find ourselves in this mess.

Today galamsey has become a big political issue especially going into the 2020 election as political parties seek to make political capital and gains out of galamsey but to what end? The negative effects of galamsey continue to stare all of us in the face and what we need now are not mere political rhetorics as usual but a well laid out strategy and plan to deal decisively with the galamsey enigma once and for all. I have always posited that galamsey is not only a political issue but also a social, cultural, religious and economic issue that needs to be tackled from those perspectives. It is a multidimensional and multi-sectoral problem that can never be solved politically. Anybody that seeks to do politics with galamsey is clearly clueless about the crosscutting nature of the problem. Yes the political actors have a big role to play in the fight against galamsey but the socio-cultural and economic dimensions of galamsey cannot be glossed over.

Galamsey does not occur in a vacuum, it occurs in communities. There are several communities in Ghana with huge gold deposits but the chiefs and people of these communities have declared their community a "no galamsey zone" and indeed nobody can enter those communities to engage in any form of illegal mining. Personally I think we should leave the fight against illegal mining in the hands of our chiefs and elders and special community task force against illegal mining while educating the masses on the dangerous consequences of galamsey with a framework developed by government to that effect under the direct supervision of Metropolitan, Municipal District Chief Executives (MMDCEs) who also double as the chair of the various Metropolitan, Municipal, District Security Councils. Indeed the fight against illegal/small scale mining should be everybody's business, a shared responsibility because until something drastic is done about galamsey now the environmental future of this country is bleak, very bleak.

We cannot continue to leave the fight against illegal mining in the hands of the military and police, they will fail us. We have been using them since the 1980s and they have consistently failed us miserably. Even under military regimes they failed us. I dare ask why don't we revise the strategy and vary the modus operandi using our local structures including our various Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies, our traditional and local structures to wage and win this war against illegal mining?

We have to win this war at all cost, we are very capable of winning the war. We are already feeling the pangs of the negative externalities of illegal mining through our share of global warming and climate change due to unbridled deforestation arising out of illegal mining. There is currently an acute scarcity of water and high cost of water due to the high cost of treating polluted water bodies for drinking, another negative effect of galamsey.

It is a truism that galamseyers are just free riders depleting our common resources of land, water, forests etc without restoring or reclaiming nor pay taxes to government typical of the tragedy of the commons we cannot continue like that, this war must be won and won decisively.

I would like to commend the government for the introduction of the concept of community mining scheme. It is a tacit admission that we can never eliminate small scale mining from our local economy as a people but it must be done in a responsible manner that benefits all in line with best practices around the globe.

My only plea is for this community mining scheme to be modeled along with our local government, traditional authorities and community structures for our opinion leaders to also have a say as to how small scale mining can be done responsibly to facilitate community development and by extension national development.

The writer is a freelance writer from Aboso in the Western Region