Since last weekend, there’s been a spate of galamsey coverage across the Ghanaian media – TV, radio and print. This is a marked contrast to the minimal coverage given to last month’s Eco-Conscious Citizens call to the media and the Western North Regional Minister for the halt of the galamseyers’ destruction of the Atronsu landscape and stream, or the press briefing at the Kpeshie lagoon estuary at La, Accra where Eco-Conscious Citizens founder Awula Serwah highlighted the impending environmental hazards due to concrete developments on wetlands.
The fight against the galamsey menace is the responsibility of all Ghanaians, from the president, elected representatives, specific statutory bodies, ordinary citizens, to the media, whose job it is to highlight such environmental ills.
However, judging by the number of requests from TV and radio stations for Awula Serwah to contribute to their news coverage of galamsey since last Saturday, it’s undeniable that the media has given serious coverage to galamsey because of the current water crisis particularly in the Central Region, which was highlighted over the weekend by the Ghana Water Company Limited.
With less than a week to go before the 60th Oguaa Fetu Afahye festival in Cape Coast, which the Asantehene will be attending, the water company pointed out the cause of its challenges – low water output and degradation of its equipment – was the unchecked environmental vandalism, known as galamsey, which occurs up and down its source of water, which is the now very turbid River Pra.
We’ve monitored a high number of media coverage since the water crisis was announced. Indeed, this morning, Awula Serwah was on the GBC News Focus programme entitled ‘GWCL Rings Alarm Bell on Effect of Galamsey On Operations: What Solutions Have Political Parties Manifestos?’ This will be repeated this evening around 11pm.
The media needs to more than just report what’s in the manifestos – it needs to challenge the politicians on how their manifestos will immediately arrest the poisoning of our water bodies and farm lands, and the depletion of our forest cover.
Joy News also launched its Hotline documentary ‘Poisoned Rivers’ this week. This, like the news and magazine programmes coverage, show that galamsey and the state of our water bodies are worse than when President Akufo-Addo made his ‘presidency on the line’ pledge to deal with galamsey seven years ago.
Not only don’t the manifestos of the two main political parties show a robust plan to deal with what Awula Sewah describes as an “existential threat,” but when one hears the level of debate on galamsey in parliament reduced to which party polluted the water bodies more than the other, what hope is there that the people we’ve elected to manage our environment know what to do?
Eco-Conscious Citizens is a non-partisan environmental group. However, earlier this year when it launched its Eco-Conscious Citizens Friends Of The Environment Manifesto (EECFOTE Manifesto), majority of the contents were endorsed by NDC MP and Lands and Forestry Committee of Parliament Ranking Member Dr Abdul Rashid-Pelpuo. Sadly none is included in the NDC manifesto.
The first two of the five-point EECFOTE Manifesto are:
- Repeal E.I. 144 and withdraw L.I. 2462 within the first 6 months of administration – Accra needs more forests, not less, and it’s “perverse” that mining, and logging, should take place not just in forest reserves, but also in globally significant bio-diversity areas, such as Atewa Forest and the Draw River Forest Reserve.
- Pause Community Mining and enshrine the rights of communities to reject mining in their localities, within the first six months of your administration – we can’t properly regulate the few large mining companies, how much more the hundreds of small scale mining operators. In addition, the wishes of communities that do not want the so-called community mining must be respected.In this period of electioneering, if the politicians and the relevant statutory bodies show no will to deal with the galamsey menace, then the citizenry will have to advise itself.
The government can declare a state of emergency within which to repair our polluted water bodies, among other things. In the absence of any robust action to address the effects of galamsey, the citizenry can look to demonstrations or general strikes, to force the authorities to do the work they are mandated to do, which includes protecting the environment and the health of the citizens.
Time is running out – we need to see a commitment to deal with the canker of illegal mining before we reach the point of no return. We should vote wisely at the forthcoming general elections.
P.S: Just when this release was meant to go out, we read that the Lands Minister has an emergency meeting today. According to him, “the government would soon deploy law enforcement agencies to target areas with rising illegal mining activities with a special focus on the Central Region”. Better late than never.
By Eco-Conscious Citizens
