The ‘galamsey’ vessel
Pictures of scary vessels with white skinned persons as they plough our river beds in search of precious minerals leaving behind muddied and polluted water represent the challenge of galamsey in the country.
Our lands are being degraded in the most unacceptable manner and we appear to have confined the dangerous issue to conference room discussions and occasional media references. Relatively little, in terms of organized national security action against the madness, is yet to be seen.
In the past few weeks, the rate at which the degradation is progressing is beyond imagination. For those who understand the fallouts of the wicked activities of those engaged in galamsey, they do not believe it when after so many concerns have been expressed about the spate of destruction of our land, little is being done to reverse the anomaly.
It is even more saddening when we consider the fact that those perpetrating the degradation with even more sophisticated gadgets and vessels are foreigners, some of them living here illegally.
Some of them are armed and ready to confront anybody who seeks to prevent them from continuing with their occupation; their godfathers being the source of their confidence.
That Ghanaians would fold their arms for Chinese miners to come to our country and do the kind of things they are doing with such recklessness, is an issue we all have to ponder over.
Posterity would be harsh with us if we continue on this seeming path of indifference about what is happening.
We owe it a duty to protect the land bequeathed to us by our forebears from destruction at the hands of not only indigenous persons but others who came here from their original homes simply to exploit our natural resources without any thought about the repercussions.
We hereby call on government and other stakeholders to sit up and take the necessary steps to stem the rising tide of land degradation and the pollution of our water sources.
We shudder to think that the gadgets being used by the illegal miners to destroy our land and pollute our rivers are brought in through our seaports yet it has never occurred to the relevant regulatory agencies to stop these imports. If no such law has been passed and so our human sentinels at the entry points are unable to do anything to stop them, we ask that the necessary legislative action be taken forthwith.
A National Security challenge is staring us in the face – the response to which must be radical and the involvement of all hands on deck.
We must go beyond the lamentation and take decisive actions immediately, regardless of whose ox is gored.
We do not need to beg the expatriate perpetrators, we must force them to stop and get out of the country immediately.
When we are done with their exit and stopped the anomaly we should then consider how to restore the integrity of the polluted water bodies because it is massive.