It is unconscionable how illegal small scale mining, otherwise known as galamsey, continues to rampage through the country’s flora and fauna.
Experts the world over, each passing day, predict the gloomy future ahead of the country as this heinous crime festers.
In the face of mounting evidence of where the country is headed, galamsey grows stronger each day. Many are those who believe the faces behind galamsey are just too powerful and perhaps immune to laws governing the sector.
If not, Sir Sam Jonah, a consummate businessman, appears bemused as to, “how is it possible that the Minerals Commission seems powerless to stop the activities.”
That, “those empowered to protect the people looking on, or away, whilst these heinous activities destroying the very basis of life in our communities are going on?” he wondered, perhaps, shows how hopeless things are becoming.
Sir Jonah, the Chancellor of the University of Cape Coast, poured out his frustration when he addressed the 2023 Annual General Conference of the Pharmaceutical Society of Ghana in Takoradi in the Western Region.
Laws governing the country’s gold mining sector are unambiguously clear and Mr. Jonah reiterated: “You cannot mine within a certain proximity of a water body. The law is very clear about how you dispose of your waste from your mining activities. The law is very clear on lawful activities in forest reserves. The law is also very clear; foreigners cannot engage in small-scale mining. And for those who are licensed, the law requires regular reporting to the Minerals Commission which is expected to be monitoring activities.”
As true as this is, Mr Jonah argued that, “like corruption, illegal mining is not about the lack of laws but the will to enforce the laws.”
If not, “in the age of drones, the Minerals Commission should be capable of monitoring all mining activities in real-time,” he insisted and ultimately stump out galamsey.
The destructive effects of illegal small scale mining are far reaching.
Mr. Jonah is convinced the activity is, “without doubt the worst onslaught on public health of our nation”.
His stellar works in Ghana’s gold mining sector is enough for him to appreciate, well, the many goods of small scale mining as opposed to the utter uglies of illegal small scale mining thus fully supports small scale mining. What he abhors is any form of economic venture which plunders and leads to the abjection of many.
“I am not against small-scale mining. I am for wealth creation to lift each impoverished community, not health destruction in the unwise plunder of greed and insanity. I am for lawful labour for your legal tender. What I am against is the manner in which the laws of the country are flouted with impunity to destroy water bodies and the environment for the many so that just a few people can make money.”
By Eric Yaw Adjei