The issue of illegal mining or galamsey, its general moniker, should not be left to politicians on the other side of the political aisle to deal with. It is a situation critical by all standards no matter how we look at it.
It should be discoursed by all Ghanaians who depend on food and water for their sustenance. Logically, therefore, it is a subject which should be of concern to all Ghanaians living.
Scientific revelations released recently indicate that chemicals such as cyanide and mercury which are used crudely by the illegal miners seep into surrounding water bodies. With people drinking this water, the long term effects can only be imagined. Little wonder the incidence of kidney ailments is said to be on the increase.
It has also been disclosed by the scientific community that some chemicals which have seeped into water bodies through illegal mining will take some three hundred years to clear. We joke with this subject at the peril of the health of the nation.
Public discourses must be sustained until illegal mining activities are reduced to the barest minimum.
The subject has only taken the political garb because it is only government which has been bestowed with the constitutional authority to maintain order in society using, as it does so, state coercive power to achieve this. Besides, the incumbent political authority promised Ghanaians to deal with the activities when they come to power, and politicised the subject to their advantage.
Where outright elimination of a toxic practice is not possible, there should be visible signs that efforts are on to curb this.
Unfortunately, under the current dispensation, all there is to the galamsey fight is hot air.
A recent announcement from the President that fresh initiatives are going to be applied to protect forests recovered from illegal miners does not go far enough, feeble as it sounded. Many promises have come and gone. Big party names mentioned as engaging in the dirty industry are yet to be invited lest alone investigated by the appropriate investigative bodies.
The impunity with which the illegal mining activities are going on is beyond comprehension and could be blamable on the posturing of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) during the run-up to the last elections.
The subject under review is beyond partisan politics, but about the health of the people of this country.
Illegal miners were baited with the promise of being allowed to carry on with their occupation without hindrance when they supported to have the NDC come to power.
Illegal miners were particularly targeted in the campaigns of the NDC, which unleashed their teams of propagandist to engage with such persons in the gold-bearing areas of the country.
We recall the promise by the President to go after the big names in the illegal industry but to release the small fries in jail. ‘Go and continue the business as soon as the declaration of NDC victory is made’ was another promise given illegal miners.
If the foregone were not enough assurance for illegal miners to carry on when the victory was declared, we do not know what else are.
Today, some illegal miners holding top positions are able to openly say that their party is in government and so nobody can stop them from carrying on with the trade.
Let us be serious and stop paying lip-service with this serious issue.