As prostitution is considered one of the oldest trades in the world, so is illegal mining, popularly known as galamsey, considered one of the oldest businesses in Ghana.
At Manso Datano in the Ashanti Region, the residents used to call illegal mining pits ‘Nkron’. Children growing up were warned to always look out for the ‘Nkron’, because you would not survive if you fell into it.
But despite the existence of ‘Nkron’ in those days, the natural environment did not suffer destruction on the scale we are witnessing today.
As we put this piece together, all the major rivers in this country, with the exception of the Volta, have been heavily polluted through illegal mining activities.
At a point in time, Ghana Water Company Limited closed down the Inchanban treatment plant near Sekondi in the Western Region, because the turbidity level was so high that it could no more treat water from the intake point.
Our brothers and sisters living in the rural areas used to depend on rivers and creeks as their main source of drinking water, but, today, they can no more do that because these sources have all been destroyed through illegal mining activities.
Almost all the governments under the Fourth Republic have come out with strategies to fight the menace, but none of them has succeeded.
We are in this messy situation, because galamsey has become big time business for politicians and business gurus in this country.
They are sitting mainly in Accra and deploying innocent Ghanaian youth into the bush to dig for the precious minerals. When they are arrested, these poor boys are the ones jailed.
These business tycoons and their politician counterparts do not care about the destruction being caused to the water bodies, because they sit in Accra and drink clean water sourced from the Volta River that has not been polluted.
In our view, if the battle is to be won over these ‘big shots’, the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) of the Ghana Armed Forces must be assigned the sole responsibility of leading the fight.
As noted by a panelist on United Television on Tuesday night, military personnel know the consequences that await them should they flout the orders of their superiors.
Therefore, instead of allowing civilians to lead them, President Akufo-Addo should task the CDS to end the galamsey menace. This means the strategy for the fight would be led and directed by the army.
If a soldier will be bold to take a bribe and supervise illegal miners to operate in defiance of the orders given him or her by the CDS that will be his own cup of tea.
The Chronicle also suggests that a freeze be put on the importation of chanfan machines, which are used by the illegal miners to destroy the water bodies.
We cannot pretend to be fighting the illegal miners when we have given them the freedom to import the very materials they are using to wreak havoc on our environment.
As we have always stated in this column, illegal mining is a threat to the very existence of this country.
We will be laughing at the wrong side of our mouths if we allow a few individuals to flout our laws as we are witnessing now.
Already, Japan and other First World countries are reportedly cutting down the importation of our cocoa, because of traces of cyanide in the produce.
Can Ghana stand on her feet without cocoa? If we all agree that the answer is a big no, then the authorities must wake up from their slumber before the unfortunate situation occurs. We shall return to this topic.
