The kids in action at a galamsey site
Children, some of them as young as six or so, active in an illegal mining site in a viral video has had people expressing concern about how far the subject has degenerated.
While the video was shared on social media, some television stations played it and triggered expressions of disgust, as some said the parents should not have subtly introduced the kids to the practice.
It is difficult to tell whether the kids knew what they were doing as showed on the video.
It could show that they were only mimicking what their parents were doing nearby. Be it as it may, their exposure to the chemicals used by the illegal miners should be a matter of worry to community watchers.
The kids, as the video captured it, were performing the standard drill of fetching the gold-bearing grains of the sand and putting same on a sieve where it would be rid of gold grains as part of the process.
Adults were busy nearby as the kids performed on a small scale what their parents were doing.
The kids will grow up mastering the art of destroying the environment, which is what illegal mining does to the communities’ river bodies and forests.