Ghana’s illegal mining is a threat to global cocoa and food supply
“In the last cocoa season 2022/2023, around 5 million tonnes of cocoa were produced worldwide. Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana are by far the two largest cocoa growing countries, accounting for 50 % of global cocoa production.” — Swiss Platform for Sustainable Cocoa.
Ghana is a major contributor to 50% of the World’s cocoa consumption — But Ghana is also growing it’s cocoa with water infested by mercury and cyanide through it’s illegal mining procedures, popularly known as “Galamsey”, for quick extraction of gold for export. After all, we were once known as the Gold Coast — we don’t lack the mineral.
Let me give you a back story about Galamsey.
Although Galamsey (an abbreviation of “Gather them and sell”) has been known to affect mining communities for years, in 2013, the prominence of this illegal small scale gold mining increased significantly.
For years, select people have engaged in the illegal mining of mineral resources to the detriment of the nation.
Here is a video documentary that highlights the dangers of this illegal gold mining industry, how it’s mined, how children are used in this extraction of gold and the threats it poses.
On 3 September 2024, BBC News reported that Ghana risks importing water by 2030. It’s disheartening, that the people in the villages, faced with poor and adverse living conditions, unemployment, no access to good and proper healthcare, are forced to go down in these pits and do the literal dirty work of the financiers.
Who are the kingpins financing Galamsey and why have the changing Governments (NPP and NDC) not been bold enough to put a stop to it?
The Investigation done by the Fourth Estate clearly exposed all the stakeholders involved — most of whom are heavily tied to the government. How can the greedy people involved be the same ones to put a stop to illegal activities that feed them and their immediate families? Even at the detriment of the entire nation. Members of Parliament of the ruling party NPP, as well as those in opposition (NDC) have boldly and blatantly affirmed their stance on continuing the illegal acts of Galamsey as it serves their pockets.
The Ghana Water Company Limited reports that 60% of its water sources are silted due to illegal mining.
Read the detailed press release below:
“Due to this contamination, water treatment plants along the Pra and Birim rivers are forced to use up to five times more chemicals to purify the water for consumption, thereby raising the cost of treatment. This increased cost is passed on to consumers, leading to higher water bills” — Citi News Room report Oct 4, 2024. As a nation, we currently do not have the resources to treat the heavy poisoning of our water.
The Pharmaceutical Society of Ghana also released a press statement on the 3rd of October, stating that “the pollution of water resources poses a threat to the increasing cost of medicine production in the country., jeopardizing local drug manufacturing.”
The Ghanaian government is infringing on the rights of peaceful protesters against illegal mining
On the 22nd of September 2024, concerned citizens took to the streets to demonstrate against this grave situation and were unlawfully arrested by the police, under instructions of “Orders from Above”. The Ghana we thought we knew as being a democratic state, is now taking orders from the government to stifle free speech and movement of its people. 53 people were arrested — with fear that some might still be unaccounted for as the police were hesitant to release the names and locations of the arrested.
Some of those arrested were bystanders. The Police denied all those arrested the right to legal representation. For 48 hours, they were not allowed access to a lawyer, neither were they allowed to a phone call/ to be seen by their family. As I write, they are currently being held without bail. The current president Nana Akuffo Addo, a supposed Human Rights lawyer, who even protested in the 1995 Kume Preko protest against Value Added Tax (VAT) initiative, is now watching as protesters are imprisoned for exercising their constitutional rights.
Footage from the unlawful arrests:
Since then, this act against the human rights of citizens has created momentum for more organizations to speak up against the unlawful arrest and detainment of citizens and the demand for the government to live up to their responsibility of serving the nation and putting a stop to Galamsey.
There is currently a 3-day protest which began on the 3rd of October through to 5th October. This protest is a demand for the release of the wrongfully detained citizens and the end of Galamsey. Come out and show your solidarity for those unjustly imprisoned.
See below footage from the #FreetheCitizens and #EndGalamsey protests:
Why should a select few be left to destroy the country for the rest of us who do not have second passports or an opportunity to leave on a whim when situations get extremely dire?
Show your support. Speak to those around you, add your voice and amplify the collective voice. Show up at the physical protest in Accra. #EndGalamseyNow #StopGalamseyNow #FreetheCitizens
Galamsey has adverse effects on not only the country of Ghana but also on its exports.
To top it all off, there is already immense pressure on Ghana’s healthcare system. As of August 2022, there were 7,745 government hospitals reported to serve Ghana’s 30 million population. The irony of this is that, in March 2020, the current NPP Government demolished the existing LA Hospital — a hospital that serves 3 major towns in the capital of Accra, cut sod in August 2020 and put up a huge billboard thanking themselves for building a “new hospital” on a bare land. Till now, the people are still waiting for its completion. Where will the people receive their kidney dialysis treatments after drinking mercury infested waters and giving birth to babies with deformities? Children are currently born with deformities in our hospitals due to Galamsey.
Aside cocoa that we supply the world, we also export a lot of food items such as tubers, palm oil etc. Growing these crops are primarily done in the Ashanti, Western, Eastern and Central Regions whose water bodies have been completely destroyed by Galamsey. “Approximately seven million smallholder farmers produce more than 90 percent of the food consumed in Ghana.” — Corteva, 2022.
In addition, Cocoa farms and lands are also being cleared up by farmers for digging for gold. Many of these farmers get the lowest end of the stick regardless of the fact that Ghana is one of the leading cocoa exporters. Being forced to survive, many of them are resorting to other ways to make money quick — where they have turned to Galamsey.
A quick search of Ghana on Google maps, and you will see how brown all of the rivers in the Southern regions of the country have turned. So next time you think of importing your foods from Ghana, remember that we have citizens fighting for change, an uninterested President whose only concern is about the image he sells to the International Media but not on the food he sells to them and even his people.
We’ve lost our humanity.
More Material on how intricately deep Galamsey is:
In March 2023, Aljazeera released an investigative documentary called the Gold Mafia which exposed the realities of this illegal business. You can watch it on YouTube here.
