In 2023 Pleasure FM’s Erastus Asare Donkor launched the documentary POISONED FOR GOLD. It was one more compelling proof of the evil destruction of the nation’s forest reserves and water our bodies for gold. He stated ten main rivers together with the Ankobra, Tano, and Offin have been taken over by lead, arsenic, chromium and cadmium.
A painstaking investigation that uncovered his private security, the journalist offered his proof earlier than the general public. In interviews on radio and tv, he didn’t say headpan and shovel-carrying unlawful miners have been the characters behind the destruction of our forest. He stated these behind the destruction are heavyweights with supervised safety from the corridors of political energy. Previous to his work, Accra-based Citi FM had championed a marketing campaign towards unlawful mining or Galamsey. The administration of the station dedicated each liner of its being to it sadly, the state did not act.
Like a warlord who goes to sit down at peace talks and fake to be negotiating for peace whereas on the identical time recruiting warfare youngsters, the federal government adopted the cow dung method. A 12 months in the past, Al Jazeera printed a report about how meals distributors in mining communities are utilizing polluted water to prepare dinner for his or her clients. The identical video exhibits scenes of residents consuming from the exact same polluted water. These harmless persons are endlessly going to hold a burden visited on them by these elected to guard them. The affect of Galamsey on insufficient water provide to main elements of the nation is already being felt.
So, when on Monday, September 2, 2024, I heard safety professional Professor Kwesi Aning on the Galamsey subject on the JoyFm Tremendous Morning Present, I had a flashback to that documentary by Erastus. Prof. Aning and two others together with the Chief Government of the Ghana Water Firm, have been talking on the again of a press release the water firm had issued on the affect of unlawful mining on its operations.
I got here throughout the assertion on social media. The corporate defined the water scarcity in Elmina, Cape Coast and surrounding communities. It says the “current demand-supply hole is a results of insufficient uncooked water obtained on the Sekyere Hemang Water Remedy Plant (WTP) because of Galamsey.”
The assertion additional went on to speak in regards to the air pollution of the well-known Pra river, and the way that has decreased water provide.
“About 60 per cent of the catchment capability is silted because of unlawful mining(Galamsey)compromising the standard of uncooked water. The assertion, signed by administration, concluded with the message: WE WISH YOU A HAPPY FESTIVAL… Afehyia Paa oooo!!!!!
For individuals who will not be conscious, the annual Fetu Afahye by the folks of Cape Coast or Oguaa comes off this weekend. It’s a pageant that draws a whole lot of each home and overseas guests. A number of areas in Accra have additionally been hit by water shortages. Prof. Aning stated Galamsey has now develop into a TRANSNATIONAL CRIME. He stated proceedings from the unlawful mining operation are categorized as a part of the illicit monetary flows. He then proceeded to marvel how a rustic that’s not at warfare is polluting its personal water our bodies for gold.
“In wartime, you destroy water our bodies to forestall the enemy from accessing water. However we’re doing it to ourselves with none such menace.”
The forest reserves are being butchered at a fast charge, while the political management continues to approve MILLIONS OF CEDIS for planting timber to ostensibly safe the way forward for the atmosphere. Then there’s additionally the case of mass participation in United Nations-organised local weather summits, the place recycled speeches are made to please the cameras. Who’re we fooling with this drama?
When President Nana Akufo Addo stated he was ready to place his presidency on the road as a part of the battle towards Galamsey, he obtained plaudits and rightly so. In spite of everything, the Commander in Chief has proven that he’s able to chunk. I share a WhatsApp group with some environmental activists and a few had zero expectations of the president’s pledge.
One of many messages that caught my consideration was from a then PhD scholar in Environmental Regulation in the US. I starred the message simply to make sure. He stated: “Nana Addo is simply tickling the balls of the chiefs to get them excited….he received’t do foko.” He then requested anybody prepared to place cash in to come back ahead. No person did.
However submit that declaration and the size of ongoing destruction to our forest reserves, he has been vindicated. The expectation was that when the president put his job on the road, he would go after the REAL CULPRITS and make a great instance of them- not AREA BOYS with HEAD PANS AND SHOVEL, who’re arrested and thrown into in a single day cells.
By pledging to place his presidency on the road, the Commander in Chief admitted to vacating his workplace if the battle towards Galamsey will not be received.
“If, by the grace of God, my celebration permits me to go once more and I’ve the well being and every thing to go once more however don’t get it once more, then I’ll say to myself: ‘Nicely, this can be a selection I’ve to make as a human being.’ Do you do what is correct or what you assume will make you get alongside? I feel you do what is correct and what you’re required to do.”
Can the president learn this quote and say he’s preventing the menace, or that he’s getting together with it? The proof is on the bottom. One other soundbite for the headlines, perhaps. The Forestry Fee says greater than thirty forest reserves have been mauled by unlawful mining. And the numbers might even go up if the carnage will not be stopped.
This identical unlawful mining has led to the unlucky homicide of a younger soldier, forsaking a younger spouse and kids. The brutal homicide provoked the army to invade the neighborhood in a revenge assault. Sadly, there are stories of army officers offering cowl for Galamsey Kingpins and their allies.
I’ve heard the president converse glowingly in regards to the success of the battle towards Galamsey. I typically marvel in regards to the form of briefing he’s supplied by these he has tasked to look at his again. Disruptive leaders, we’re informed, are those who take the arduous street even when it displeases their mates and reward singers. As a result of they know generations after they stand to achieve from their dedication to the nationwide trigger. And they’re correctly immortalised past the NOW. In spite of everything, the reward singers, like everybody else, will die and historical past is not going to bear in mind them for something past what they’re famous for. It’s their era that bears the scars of their actions, sadly.
In his eulogy to the reminiscence of the daddy of Singapore Lee Kuan Yew, Lee Hsien Loong wrote: “On the finish of the day, what have I bought? A profitable Singapore. What have I given up? My life.”
As Ghanaians, we don’t ask a lot from our leaders. We simply need them to do proper by us. And that’s what we search from this president and the federal government. That is Ghana bequeathed to us by the brains behind the formation of the Aborigine Rights Safety Society, who devoted their lives to saving our lands from the arms of the colonial masters. That is the Ghana bequeathed to us by these behind the formation of the UGCC, CPP and lots of different tribal-based events, who devoted their time and vitality to the saving of the atmosphere. Not that they didn’t have GREEDY components with insatiable urge for food for the unlawful acquisition of wealth, however they tamed the urge for food of such characters by confronting the wrongs within the system, restricted as their power could also be.
Like I at all times say or inform mates, folks elect leaders with the suitable intentions and hope they do proper by them, even when all their human frailties.
Let me digress a bit and draw a comparability of the president’s dedication stage to the battle towards Galamsey and the constructing of the now-stalled nationwide Cathedral. The President dedicated each line of his bone to the mission, and people suspected to have opposed it have been referred to as Sanballat and Tobias. Hundreds of thousands of public funds have been dedicated to the pit anticipated to accommodate the Cathedral. No person is aware of when the construction might be raised. I’m not certain a rustic whose monetary strings are being pulled by the Worldwide Financial Fund can afford to sink more cash into the mission. Has it develop into an albatross across the neck of Ama Ghana?
As we speak as we converse, fishermen residing round mining cities are out of jobs. The rivers are floating proper into the ocean and both killing the fish or driving them away, as a result of the polluted our bodies enter the ocean and add to the destruction. What’s extra valuable to the sight of God than defending that which he created for man to hunt consolation from?
Once I learn a quote from UTV attributed to at least one authorities communicator that “Elect Dr. Bawumia to battle galamsey sooner or later,” I assumed I didn’t learn proper. I then proceeded to take heed to the audio. Sarcastically, the stated communicator comes from a city being ravaged by unlawful mining. He stood to be elected as a parliamentary candidate however was not profitable.
Why should the destruction of our forest reserves be postponed on the comfort of parochial electoral fortunes, while communities endure in agony? Is that each one there’s about energy?
I feel that is additionally the time for the non secular our bodies to start to rise and demand solutions from the management. Particularly from the Christian neighborhood who have been loud of their advocacy for the now-stalled Cathedral, that is the time for them to STAND UP AND BE COUNTED. The church should not at all times be about PRAYER, TONGUE SPEAKING, FASTING AND DIRECTIONS. A few of the leaders who backed the Cathedral have branches within the affected mining cities.
Their flocks are consuming poison by the minute. They can’t be speaking about successful souls or spreading the gospel with out being concerned about the way forward for the environments sheltering their investments. As soon as these communities go down, the church buildings will equally fall. And with that extra souls could also be misplaced. There’s a cause why we’re Ghanaians and never Europeans or Individuals. In 1929 when the good Ghanaian composer and musicologist Ephraim Amu composed “Yɛn Ara Asaase Ni” to wit “That is our Land,” he may need been impressed by the luxurious greens of the nation’s forest belt, with birds flapping their wings and fortunately chirping in contentment.
This isn’t the land he and his friends envisioned as the current Ghana. Greed should have a restrict, Mr. President.
Even the DEVIL RESTED at some extent.