JAMES KOFI ANNAN
C/O P. O. Box 398, Winneba.
March 21, 2024
The Chief Executive Officer
Minerals Commission
P. O. Box M248
Accra.
Through:
The Municipal Chief Executive Officer
Effutu Municipal Assembly
Winneba
Dear Sir/Madam,
PETITION SUBMITTED BY JAMES KOFI ANNAN, TO THE MINERALS COMMISSION TO OPPOSE THE MINING LICENSING APPLICATION SUBMITTED BY GLEAM RESOURCES LIMITED, TO THE MINERALS COMMISSION, SEEKING TO BE LICENSED TO MINE AND OR PROSPECT FOR LITHIUM AND GOLD AT DOMEABRA, ATEKYEDO AND OKYEREKO WITHIN THE GOMOA CENTRAL, GOMOA EAST, AND EFFUTU MUNICIPALITY.
I bring you warm greetings from Winneba.
I am an indigen of the Effutu Municipal whose permanent residential address is SA 68/7, Sankor, Winneba, in the Central Region of Ghana. I was born, raised, and schooled in the Municipality. As a growing-up child, I used to farm maize, cassava, tomatoes, pepper and other vegetables with my father in a village called Tuansa number 2, in Atekyedo, and in Tuansa main, all communities bothering the Ayensu River. My grandfather was a titled chief in Tuansa until the great flooding in 1961 wiped the entire community out of the location.
Over the years I have had business interests in the Effutu Municipality and all three Gomoa Districts, namely Gomoa East, Gomoa Central, and Gomoa West. I estimate that I have employed a cumulative total of over 1,500 people in the last two decades across all four districts.
Undoubtedly, all these Gomoa Districts and Effutu Municipality are served water from the Ghana Water Company’s pumping plant located near Atekyedo, and the treatment plant at the Winneba Water Works. The Ghana Water Company operations in the three Gomoa Districts and Effutu, take its water source from the Ayensu River.
Needless to say, I have dedicated the last 30 years of my 50 years life, to defending, and fighting for the rights of the people of my municipality and beyond; education, health, employment, environment, and many more. That aside, due to my conspicuous roots and presence in the above Districts and Municipality, any activity that impacts them, whether negative or positive, also impacts directly and or indirectly on my person, and my associates.
I have since the beginning of the year 2024, paused my career, and am currently serving as the Parliamentary candidate of the NDC in the Effutu constituency, to continue my mission hoping to deploy political office as a tool to reach my goals.
In the last couple of years, I have been fighting to ward off lithium prospecting in the Winneba/Pomadze Ramsar sites, which embodies the Winneba Aboakyer festival hunting grounds. You would recall that somewhere in 2023, I led a protest against the Minerals Commission’s granting of a prospecting license to the Green Metal Resources Ltd, to undertake lithium mining in the Winneba/Pomadze Ramsar sites, which includes the Winneba Aboakyer Festival Hunting Grounds.
Today too, my attention has been drawn to a notice in the Daily Graphic of Thursday, February 29, 2024, notifying the public of an intended mining of Lithium and Gold in Domeabra, Atekyedo and Okyereko communities, which are communities on the banks of the River Ayensu. According to your good offices (Minerals Commission), the publication was done on February 6, 2024, but appeared on page 40 of Daily Graphic on Thursday, February 29, 2024, schedule number 50, giving interested persons up to 21 days to register their interests. The geographical locations of the lease sought border three districts, namely, Gomoa East, Gomoa Central, and Effutu. The Region stated was Western, which I now believe could be inadvertent.
Respectfully, such publications were not done in conspicuous places, for the knowledge of those the publication was intended for. Daily Graphic is a paper of choice and could not have been easily accessible to the intended beneficiaries of the publication. Also, the regional location of the communities did not enable many to have paid early attention.
Be it as it may, my checks show that there has not been any due process, of consultation of the local people in the affected Ayensu River communities, an important step in any environmental scoping project.
Gleam Resources Limited was incorporated for mining in Ghana on December 7, 2021, with registration number CS237771221, with P. O. Box CE 11173, Community 11, Tema, as its address. They applied for the prospecting Lithium and gold mining license on November 17, 2023, with depository number APL-P-645.
As a citizen and a key stakeholder in the Effutu Municipality, and beyond, I would like to inform you that I vehemently oppose the granting of such a license to Gleam Resources Ltd, the applicants.
The proposed communities, Domeabra, Atekyedo and Okyereko, border the Ayensu River in very close proximity. The proposed coverage areas, 24.36km2, suggest that virtually the entire banks of the Ayensu River falling within the aforementioned districts are affected.
This Ayensu River is the main source of drinking water for the people of Effutu, and our brothers and sisters from the Gomoa communities. It is the only water from which Ghana Water Company draws its water for purification, and onward distribution to communities throughout Effutu and the three Gomoa districts.
Just yesterday, the Daily Graphic published excerpts of a report done by the Tama Foundation Universal, that reveals high levels of dangerous metals/chemicals such as mercury, cadmium, lead, iron, chemical oxygen, arsenic and manganese emptied into the White Volta and the Volta Lake due to mining activities. The report catalogues a series of dangerous health risks that riverside mining poses to human health. The situation may not be different in the Ayensu river, and those who use it, if mining is done close to it. Toxic chemicals and metals are likely to be washed into the river which would affect human life, as well as life under the river – both humans and the fishes would eat poison, and both would die.
It is common knowledge that mining, especially gold and lithium mining, requires a lot of water to wash the metal. It means therefore that the water needs of the mining activity are now going to compete with the water needs of the people who are currently relying on the Ayensu River.
Sadly, the Ayensu River is already so small – it is a thin river, and in some locations along its course, it can qualify to be called a stream. To make matters worse, the Ayensu River is engulfed with water hyacinth which threatens its existence, especially during the dry season. Historically, there have been several times when the Ghana Water Company’s pumping plant had been shut down due to dangerously low levels of the river.
I have over the years advocated for the dredging of the river, to ensure its free flow, and to increase its depth and sustainability. My advocacy has largely not been successful due to the size of the investments needed to undertake such a venture.
Any attempt to undertake any mining activities anywhere close to the river could therefore result in total drying up of the river and consequently result in life-threatening situations for those who live in the three Gomoa Districts and the Effutu Municipality.
Such mining activity would not only spill wastewater into the Ayensu, but also lift toxic chemicals into the river, cause irrecoverable diseases to the users and inhabitants of the communities, and wipe out the fishes therein.
I would like to, equally draw your attention to the fact that the estuary (where the river empties itself into the sea) of the Ayensu River is in Winneba. This means that all those potentially dangerous metals and chemicals left in the river in the wake of the mining activity would find their way into the already e-waste-troubled sea, further jeopardizing its ecosystem, and the current of the sea spread such materials to other distant shores to further affect the livelihoods of the fisher folks from Gomoa West to Greater Accra.
Again, the banks of the Anyensu River are perhaps the only arable land left for the people of Nsuekyir, Atekyedo, Silver Krom, Tuansa Number 2, Sankor, Osubonpanyin, Gyahadze, Okyereko, and all those who live along it, to grow maize, cassava, rice, okro, tomatoes, and other vegetables even during the dry season. The farmers have also used the Ayensu River as a source of irrigation for their farming activities. The Ayensu River over the years has also served as a source of fishing for a lot of people in Winneba and Gomoa. Artisanal fishermen have fished tilapia, mad fish, ‘nnataa’, crabs, and others, for food, and income.
This means that the attempt to grant a Lithium and Gold mining lease to Gleam Resources Ltd is not only going to deprive the people of their drinking water source, but also would afflict them with untold diseases, and deprive them of their livelihoods, making it impossible for them to live.
I, therefore, register my vehement protest, and opposition to, the Lithium and Gold mining prospecting application submitted by Gleam Resources Ltd, as described above.
Thank you.
James Kofi Annan
(0274449500)
.