Galamsey, existential problem

If, perchance, you are shocked or alarmed at the above headline then you belong to the group of ‘doubting Thomases’ among us who do not see how the effects of illegal mining, otherwise known as ‘galamsey’, are gradually, but steadily wreaking such devastating havoc on our society that it is reaching life-threatening dimensions.

In the immediate past week, three events completely unconnected but with a common thread – ‘galamsey’, have influenced the designation of the heading above, thereby dislodging the original theme of this week’s article.

First

The first was a devastating and crippling water shortage that afflicted inhabitants of the Komenda, Edina, Eguafo and Abrem (KEEA) and Cape Coast communities in the Central Region. Inhabitants of KEEA, including yours truly, have to travel long distances in order to access water.

Normally, being off-grid for water and power supplies, we rely on harvested water from rainfall during the rainy season which is stored in underground reservoirs.

When the rains fail, as they did this year, we purchase water from private entrepreneurs who supply water in mobile water tanks. In extreme situations we buy water from the Komenda township poly tank, but their water had been turned off.

The water shortage also affected the Komenda College of Education and it was a sad spectacle to watch students having to walk long distances carrying buckets of water from their reservoir, a situation which had to be detrimental to their studies.

The problem was so dire that we resorted to buying sachet water to cater for our needs, a solution which is not sustainable for obvious reasons, not least financial.

The cause of the problem, according to the Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL), was shortage of treatable water at the Sekyere Hemang water treatment plant which serves the vicinity, owing to the activities of illegal gold mining – galamsey.

The primary source of water for the treatment plant is obtained from the River Pra, and the GWCL had recently threatened to shut down the plant.

Second

The second incident was what I witnessed at Assin Praso regarding the state of the River Pra on my way to Kumasi for the annual Bar Conference. The murky and highly coloured nature of the river confirmed the high turbidity levels as reported in the GWCL’s press release.

Turbidity is caused by particles suspended or dissolved in water, making the water appear cloudy or murky. Excess turbidity (currently at 14,000 ntu instead of a recommended peak of 2,000 ntu) can cause heavy metals, like lead, mercury, arsenic etc., which are all by-products of galamsey activities and which are extremely toxic to humans, to contaminate the water supply.

The third incident was what we beheld at Konongo on our journey from Kumasi to Accra after the Bar Conference. The sheer devastation and wanton destruction of the adjoining lands close to the highway was as obscene, as it was criminal.

Whole stretches of land with gaping holes were on open view, some almost threatening the very foundations of the highway, all due to the irresponsible acts of these greedy ‘galamseyers’.

All three incidents enumerated lead to an inexorable conclusion: galamsey has become an existential threat. It is destroying and polluting our water bodies.

Correlation

According to the environmental journalist Erastus Donkor on Newsfile on September 7, experts have confirmed that there is a direct correlation between heavy metal contamination and severe developmental abnormalities in children.

He narrated a harrowing tale of babies born with deformities, some with extra limbs, some with malformed heads and the absence of genitalia.

Tests on the placentas of these infants – all in communities with massive galamsey activities – reveal high levels of cyanide, arsenic and mercury, toxic heavy metals which can have a devastating effect on foetal development.

‘Galamsey’, apart from its dangerous health hazards and the potential life-threatening menace of water shortage, is also collapsing the cocoa sector as large tracts of cocoa farms have been destroyed. No wonder the production of cocoa, once a lifeline for our economy, has almost halved.

Space and time constraints will not permit a thorough exposition of the menace of galamsey, but it is incontrovertible that it has become an existential problem which needs to be nipped in the bud if we are to survive as a people.

Next week’s article will explore the legal solutions to the problem, in terms of the emerging human right to a safe, clean and sustainable environment. A stitch in time, they say, saves nine.

The writer is a lawyer.
E-mail: georgebshaw1@gmail.com