Galamsey activities causing “environmental genocide” – GAWU laments

The Ghana Agricultural Workers Union (GAWU) has joined the fight against illegal mining activities, commonly known as galamsey.

The union describes the activities of galamsey as an environmental genocide due to its negative impact on the environment.

In an interview, the General Secretary of GAWU, Edward Kareweh, advised the government to check the menace, indicating that it is affecting food production in the country.

“The river bands are not encroached on by farmers but by galamseyers, and they even go into the middle of the river to mount their equipment. To loot everything and kill aquatic life. I am saying we are committing environmental genocide because you and I when we go to those areas, we go with our sachet and bottled water, which we call mineral water and drink. What about our friends, the insects, the grasshoppers, the snacks, and other living organisms that go to the river to drink?

“When they drink that water, they will die, just like when we drink that water, we will die. So we are killing them permanently, and we are also destroying the forest which used to be good habitant. So it’s just the environmental genocide we are committing and that will bite all of us back,” Mr. Kareweh predicted in an interview monitored by The Ghana Report on Starr FM.

He added, “The recent findings show that children around those areas are born with unusual deformities. If you look at the plantations that are around, they are encroaching on them. Farmers need fresh land to add more acres so that they can expand. This time, they don’t have the opportunity to expand, but even the existing land size that they are being encroached on by galamseyers”.

Meanwhile, the Deputy Minister-Designate for Local Government, Decentralisation, and Rural Development, Vincent Ekow Assafuah, has dismissed claims suggesting that President Akufo-Addo has failed to eradicate illegal mining.

According to the Old-Tafo legislator, the current administration has adopted practical ways to curb illegal mining.

“That cannot be an acceptable position. I do not agree with any assertions that there’s a failure on the part of the government as far as ‘Galamsey’ is concerned. In 2017, the President [Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo] had to put his job on the line.

“There have been some pragmatic steps taken by the government to deal with the menace. We all know about the review of the Minerals Act whereby there have been stiffer punishments for persons found culpable of engaging in ‘galamsey’ under this government,” he noted during his vetting by the Parliament’s Appointments Committee on Monday, March 11, 2024.