Galamsey: Ecocide by mercury, arsenic, lead, cyanide?
To say radio/TV news/images of Konongo, Asante-Akyem District, on the Founder’s Day holiday, Monday, September 22, 2025, and indeed throughout the week, were apocalyptic, might not be an exaggeration.
There were heart-wrenching accounts about food, water, soil and even air in Konongo, heavily contaminated with poisonous heavy metals, such as, lead, arsenic, cyanide and mercury by galamseyers.
While mercury vapour floated in the air into human lungs, the highly contaminated soil was said to be so toxic that it poisoned the skin/body on contact.
Incidentally, Konongo/Asante-Akyem is one of Ghana’s breadbaskets, “exporting” yams, cocoyam, plantains, tomatoes, onions and fruits to other parts of Ghana, particularly Accra.
Indeed, during the week, large quantities of onions and tomatoes were bought by the government from Konongo for distribution to second-cycle schools.
As I asked myself if we are on a full-blown deliberate ecocide mission, my mind went back to my article exactly a year ago in September 2024, titled Self-destruct button pressed? It read:
• The latest galamsey entrants are women at Talensi, Upper-East Region.
• In Parliament, an MP told his opponents, “You polluted the water more than us.”
This reminded me of the Nigerian author Nkem Nwankwo, whose 1975 novel was titled My Mercedes-Benz is bigger than yours. Here, your destruction of our water-bodies is “bigger” than ours, so we have done no wrong!
• A radio news report of September 5, 2025, said a galamseyer, incredibly, approached a chief to sell him part of River Ankobra.
• O’Reilly SHS: There was a fatal stabbing of an 18-year-old student of O’Reilly SHS by a classmate when an argument over whose father was richer escalated into violence! In Kumasi, a final-year student of the Akenten-Appiah –Menka-University of Skills Training and Entrepreneurial Development (AAMUSTED) was stabbed to death.
In my December 2021 article titled Digging our own graves, I stated as follows:
In his opening address at the UN Climate Conference COP-26 in Glasgow, Scotland on November 1, 2021, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres had very strong words for the 197 nations, particularly the developed/industrialised world.
He stated: “The six years since the Paris Climate Agreement (COP-25) have been the hottest on record.
Our addiction to fossil fuels is pushing humanity to the brink. We face a stark choice – either we stop it, or it stops us.
Enough of brutalising biodiversity, killing ourselves with carbon, treating nature like a toilet, burning, drilling and mining our earth deeper.
We are digging our own graves!”
In Ghana, galamsey has degraded our forests/lands, polluted rivers and poisoned underground water with chemicals such as cyanide.
Children have dropped out of school to do illegal mining, with drug use and prostitution resulting.
In recent times, environmentalists have sounded alarm bells about destroying nature’s biologically diverse ecosystem of the Atiwa Forest, a veritable source of drinking water for Ghana, just to allow foreigners to mine manganese.
Are we deliberately pressing the self-destruct button for our current gain at the expense of future generations who have to import drinking water? Are we proving Antonio Guterres right that, “we are digging our own graves?”
Discussion
On Tuesday, September 3, 2024, TV showed the stabbed 18-year-old student of O’Reilly SHS being carried to LEKMA Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
Why would an unnecessary and intellectually bankrupt argument over whose father is richer, instead of concentrating on the West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) they were writing, degenerate into a stabbing incident leading to death?
Sadly, it points to our loss of values/societal decadence, where money is all that matters, irrespective of the source.
That same night on TV, an MP fired at his opponents, saying, “You have polluted the water more than us!” Telling the MPs they knew those involved in galamsey, the Speaker stated, “Desist from galamsey!” But, is that all?
After Otumfuor’s destoolment of three chiefs, is the Police taking any action?
Commenting on the damage to our environment, Founding Director of the Environmental and Sanitation Studies of the University of Ghana, Professor Chris Gordon, said the damage done to the environment cannot be restored in his lifetime. He added that we have mortgaged the future of our children.
For his part, Professor Kwasi Aning of the KAIPTC stated that galamsey has assumed trans-national proportions with Chinese, Nigeriens, Burkinabes, Nigerians, Malians and their overseas backers all actively destroying Ghana’s environment.
On August 31, 2024, Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL) attributed the current water crisis in the Central Region, particularly Cape Coast, Elmina and their environs, to galamsey, resulting from inadequate water at the Sekyere-Hemang Water-Treatment-Plant! “Treated mud” only produces water loaded with heavy metals.
Comments So, what has changed?
Last week, the President was busy at the annual September UN General Assembly meeting in New York.
He may, therefore, not have had time to read my article titled Ghana Catholic Bishops Conference and galamsey.
You know the Biblical saying: A good name is better than silver/gold!
You also know Geoffrey Chaucer’s quote in The Canterbury Tales, “Radix Malorum est cupiditas,” that is, greed/love of money is the root of all evil.
Finally, why has the promised repeal of LI 2462 become an intended amendment now?
GRIDCO is the latest target of galamseyers as they dig under concrete foundations holding electricity masts in place.
Indeed, they shot at GRIDCO maintenance workers in some areas!
Leadership, lead by example/integrity! Fellow Ghanaians, wake up!
The writer is a former CEO, African Peace Support Trainers Association
Nairobi, Kenya; Council Chairman, Family Health University,
Teshie, Accra
E-mail: dkfrimpong@yahoo.com