The Environment and Science Lead at the Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences, Professor Alfred Oteng Yeboah, has issued a warning about the serious threat posed by illegal mining, commonly known as galamsey, to Ghana’s economy.
During an interview on Point of View on Channel One TV, Prof. Oteng Yeboah emphasized the severe impact of galamsey on agriculture and water resources. He highlighted the destruction of farms, crops, and water bodies due to unregulated mining activities.
According to the professor, the widespread dependence on galamsey as a source of livelihood makes it difficult to eradicate, despite its damaging effects on the environment and economy.
Prof. Oteng Yeboah stressed the urgent need for public awareness campaigns to educate the population on the dangers of galamsey, particularly its role in destroying cocoa farms, forest reserves, and food crop farming systems. He also mentioned the critical issue of water pollution resulting from the practice.
These concerns align with those of several stakeholders who are calling on the government to declare galamsey a national emergency and implement a ban on small-scale mining activities.
“It’s difficult to determine but it appears that some people have found the galamsey as a way of livelihood and once it’s a livelihood, it’s very difficult to take it away from them,” Prof. Oteng Yeboah stated. “They are doing it and some of them are not even aware of the effects of their actions, which we need to bring home to them, and the whole economic aspect explicitly is under threat. Because when you hear about cocoa farms being overrun, when you hear about forest reserves being overrun, when you hear about other food crop farming systems being destroyed, then you add it to the pollution that comes as a result of water, this is a point that it is relevant here because now everybody has become aware that we are in actual serious, serious trouble.”
