Pressure is mounting on Ghana’s President John Dramani Mahama to declare a state of emergency as environmental degradation caused by illegal mining reaches critical levels.
Vast stretches of the country's forest reserves have been stripped bare and water bodies have been contaminated. Activists are warning that without immediate, decisive action the damage could become irreversible.
Illegal mining – locally known as galamsey – is also threatening livelihoods and fuelling political and social unrest.
Civil society groups, environmental advocates and the Catholic Bishops’ Conference are among those now calling on the president to declare a state of emergency to combat the crisis.
Matthew Kwasi Gyamfi, president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference, said: "Such a declaration would empower extraordinary interventions: curfews in volatile areas, the securing of devastated lands, the dismantling of entrenched criminal syndicates and the halting of corrupt administrative complicities."
Civil society demands
Darly Bosu, deputy director of environmental NGO A Rocha Ghana, has echoed this call, saying the time for political debate has passed.
“The devastation caused by illegal mining has gone far beyond control,” he said.
“Our rivers are poisoned, farmlands destroyed, and communities displaced. The survival of millions of Ghanaians is at stake. A Rocha Ghana is calling on [the president] to declare a national state of emergency on galamsey. This is no longer a political issue. It is about the very soul of Ghana – its water, its food and life itself.”
The Ghana Coalition Against Galamsey has also demanded that the government declare a state of emergency in those areas most affected by illegal mining as justification for urgent intervention.
Kenneth Ashigbey, the Coalition’s convenor, stressed the need for security forces to be empowered through such a declaration to tackle illegal mining head-on.
“The Ghana Coalition Against Galamsey has called for a declaration of a state of emergency in areas prone to galamsey,” he said. “Illegal mining activities continue to devastate the environment, posing threats to lives. A state of emergency is needed to address this issue directly.”
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Government reaction
President Mahama, however, says the National Security Council does not currently recommend declaring a state of emergency in response to the ongoing crisis.
Speaking at a stakeholders' meeting on illegal mining in Accra, he explained that while he has the constitutional authority to make such a declaration, the decision must be informed by the counsel of the National Security Council.
“At this point, the Council believes we can overcome the galamsey challenge without resorting to emergency powers," he said.
Human impact
The consequences of illegal mining are being felt across the country.
Forensic histopathologist Professor Paul Poku Sampene Ossei says his research has linked at least 500 cases of spontaneous abortion in Ghana to high levels of heavy metals in the placenta caused by illegal mining activities.
His research involved more than 4,000 placentas examined from different regions across Ghana, with results showing dangerous levels of contamination on both the maternal and foetal sides.
“I have about 500 cases where women [lose their babies] because of the concentration of these heavy metals in their placenta,” he said. “The placentas are all contaminated and polluted with heavy metals."
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Many communities have also been left without water as a consequence of illegal mining.
The Ghana Water Company has shut down its treatment plant at Kwanyako in the Central Region, and the government minister responsible for the area, Ekow Panyin Okyere Eduamoah, disclosed that around 10 of the 22 Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies in the region are facing an acute water shortage as a result.
“I visited the plant myself, and I realised that even if they were forced at gunpoint to provide water, you could not be sure of its quality,” he said. “I therefore asked that they stop.”
Farms destroyed
Meanwhile, Bismark Owusu Nortey, executive director of the Peasant Farmers Association of Ghana, told RFI that illegal small-scale mining has devastated farmland across the country.
“A report that we’ve worked on shows that close to 1.2 million hectares of farmlands have already been destroyed due to galamsey," he said.
"Behind these farmlands are over 500,000 individual farmers and their dependants who have been denied the opportunity to use farming as an economic tool to improve their livelihoods."
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The destruction of farmlands and the pollution of water bodies have drastically reduced farmers’ productivity, with some who had farmed all year round now restricted to seasonal cultivation.
Illegal mining has also claimed lives. On 1 October, seven illegal miners died after a pit collapsed at an unauthorised mining site at Kasotie in the Atwima Mponua District of the Ashanti Region.
In response to the escalating crisis, the minister for lands and natural resources, Emmanuel Amarh Kofi-Buah, has issued a directive to security forces tasked with fighting illegal mining, urging them to be “firm, resolute and ruthless” in their operations.
Environmental groups, however, insist that extraordinary measures are needed before the damage becomes permanent.
