OPEN LETTER TO GHANA’S MINISTER FOR ENVIRONMENT, SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

Dear Minister, I shall go straight to the point – you are the first Ghanaian politician I have come across, who actually seems to care about our natural environment. As a green activist, who cares passionately about our country’s natural environment, I have often been saddened by the evidence one sees all around one, of the total neglect of our natural heritage by this particular generation of Ghanaians. At the rate at which we are destroying nature in the countryside, and polluting the environment of the built-up space in urban Ghana, I have no doubt in my mind whatsoever, that all the wealth we create as a society, when our oil and natural gas revenues finally come on stream, will eventually end up being spent repairing the great harm we are causing to our environment. One often finds it really hard to believe that we are the same people, whose forbears lived in harmony with nature, in the preceding centuries before the first Europeans set foot on our shores.

One has to place the blame for what is a totally unacceptable situation, for a supposedly civilized people, squarely on the shoulders of those who over the years, have led our country – but who have not provided the kind of leadership that could have helped transform our country into a well-run and orderly society, with a disciplined and mostly-literate population. It is the reason why the creation of a modern African society, in the entirety of which the citizenry live in well-planned and clean cities, towns, and villages, has continued to elude us since the overthrow of Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah in 1966 – and ordinary people still await the coming to pass, of his regime’s dawn-of-independence promise, of creating a modern Africa nation-state designed to be conducive for healthy living, happiness, and personal fulfillment, for all its citizens. Minister, a perfect example of the downside of this lack of visionary leadership in a greater part of the post-Nkrumah era, is the devastating floods we experience during our rainy seasons – and the untold misery they cause to scores of urban dwellers up and down our country every year. The perennial flooding illustrates perfectly, the incompetence of our mostly self-seeking political class, whose paucity of thought and lack of imagination is indeed truly frightening. It is certainly a most worrying state of affairs – if you happen to be the sort of individual who believes in sustainable development that will ensure the well-being of present and future generations of your family, and that of your compatriots.

Minister, you would be horrified by yet another example of the negative consequences of the failure of leadership by politicians, if you were to visit the area around the bridge over the Odaw River, at Agbogbloshie – where you will come across an environmental time-bomb that is slowly ticking away: as officialdom, much of which is only concerned with its individual pursuits, blithely carries on its daily objective of marching briskly in one spot, in order to delay the forward march of our country and its people: simply because our stagnation benefits some of them financially (through the many avenues for bribe-taking that Ghana’s going nowhere fast creates for them). The abomination, which will greet you, in the aforementioned area around the Agbogbloshie Bridge, is reputed to be the biggest environmental hazard of its kind, in the whole of the planet Earth, Minister – and it confirms our place at the world’s high table, as a global power in environmental pollution in the built-up public space, as well as in the degradation of the natural environment. After that embarrassing eye-opener, I will also urge you to take a drive along the road directly behind the Odokor tro-tro station, which passes through Odokor and eventually links one to the Achimota-Mallam motorway. You will be shocked to discover hundreds of wooden kiosks and structures sited cheek-by-jowl in what is the urban planning equivalent of a tinderbox. It is a nightmarish sight that makes one wonder precisely what role the Ghana National Fire Service plays, in the processes that must be gone through, before the town planning departments of district assemblies eventually grant planning permission, for the erection of wooden structures in towns and cities across our country.

The whole of the area straddling that road will literally go up in smoke and be destroyed in a conflagration, and tens of thousands of lives lost, if an out-of-control type of fire were to ever start in that unplanned warren and unsanitary hell-hole. The question that most concerned Ghanaians would like answered is: do we have to wait for a tragedy to occur there before every single one of those kiosks that is an illegal structure is demolished? Why does officialdom allow such shanty towns to develop in the first place – and why do they not recognize their potential for causing catastrophes? A similar situation is gradually developing on the fringes of Mallam market, as we speak. It is this tardiness of officialdom in enforcing existing rules and regulations that is the root cause of much of the chaos that passes for what we take for modernity today – and prevents ordinary people in Ghana from enjoying a good quality of life, throughout their allotted lifespan on this earth. Why is it that law-abiding citizens going about their lawful daily business, for example, are physically and emotionally assaulted by the eardrum-shattering super-loud music, blaring from mega-sound systems mounted on the backs of pick-up trucks, in much of urban Ghana today – when there are laws on our statue books prohibiting the making of excessive noise? Why too, should apparently ‘reformed’ rogues with fancy titles, operating thriving businesses masquerading as churches (mainly for tax reasons), the core business of which is the ruthless milking-dry of the gullible and the vulnerable in society, be allowed to disturb the occupants of neighbouring houses throughout the night, with that all-night “hey-baba-baba-baba; holy-ghost-fire; blood-of-Jesus” gibberish, which they ruin many a hapless family’s night sleep with? Are they all not destroying the eardrums of law-abiding citizens with impunity – and condemning them to possible deafness in their old age too?

The question is: What prevents local authorities, the police, and the EPA, from working together to stop all that pure nonsense on bamboo stilts, from going on in our country? Minister, when you have sufficiently recovered from the shock of your encounters with those horrific manifestations of our irresponsible stewardship of the environment recounted above, I will also urge you and your colleague ministers in charge of our nation’s forests and water resources, to pay a flying-visit to the forlorn village of Akim Abuakwa Juaso, which is just off the Accra-Kumasi highway at Osino junction (where one turns left as one approaches the centre of Osino from Accra). There, you and your colleagues will be astounded to discover that the Atiwa Range evergreen upland rain forest, which contains the headwaters of the three major river systems, on which most of urban Ghana depends for its drinking-water supply, is being threatened by illegal loggers and illegal surface gold miners. Minister, what is going on there, at a time of global climate change, is a national emergency situation that amounts to a crime against humanity, no less. It is an indictment of the officials of the Forestry Service of the Forestry Commission, from its top echelons to the lowest-ranked officials: whose job it is to protect that important rain forest and biodiversity hotspot, but unfortunately neglect to do so. I am writing to you directly, because you have proved beyond doubt that you are a woman of action – and the one politician in the current regime who is most likely to act immediately, to halt what will be a tragedy of apocalyptic proportions for the Ghanaian nation-state: if action is not taken to put an immediate halt to the activities of the powerful criminal syndicates engaged in the illegal logging and illegal surface gold mining, which goes on there on a scale that is truly unprecedented.

The publicity-seeking traditional authorities of Akim Abuakwa seem unable (or as their most uncharitable critics often say, unwilling) to do anything to stop what amounts to the brutal gang-rape of one of the only two upland evergreen rain forests in our country. The Atiwa Range evergreen upland rain forest happens to be a unique and internationally recognized biodiversity hotspot in West Africa. Minister, for the sake of our nation, do please act before it is too late, as the situation there is really dire. As we speak, a small-scale surface gold mining company, Solar Mining, has bought a vast swathe of farmland from the poverty-stricken cocoa farmers of that area – and the devastation they have caused, in such a short space of time, in what used to be forestland is just heartbreaking: especially as they did not even have a mining permit from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to start with. They were working hand-in-glove with Kibi Goldfields – which although does indeed own a mining concession in the Osino/Saamang area, has effectively been insolvent for over a decade now. Yet, that moribund entity has risen phoenix-like, and is now suddenly seeking a mining permit from the EPA: at precisely the time the illegal surface gold mining operations of its “associate”, Solar Mining, have been halted by the EPA.

Naturally, as the biggest private landowners in the area, who value the largely-pristine five-square mile private forest reserve our family owns there (on a freehold basis), we have written to the EPA expressing our concern – and have pointed out the fact that in our view, an area that is so sensitive ecologically, and which contains the headwaters of the three major river systems, on which millions of Ghanaians depend for their drinking water supply, ought not to be given out to surface gold miners to destroy, under any circumstances: particularly at a time of global climate change, and certainly not to merely enable greedy, selfish, super-ruthless, and well-connected surface gold-mining tycoons, to earn vast profits, at the expense of the well-being of present and future generations of Ghanaians, and their country. Minister, as part of our strategy to preserve our private forest reserve for future generations of our family and the local community (with whom our destinies are forever intertwined because we all farm in same foothills of the Atiwa Mountain Range), my family has had to rush forward medium to long-term plans to leverage opportunities available from Ghana’s quota of the clean development mechanism (CDM), to, amongst other green initiatives we have in mind, turn the area into an eco-tourism destination and a youth nature-study resource centre, in the hope that the villagers will see the benefits of preserving their natural heritage. – and to that end have approached reputable organisations such as: the Rain Forest Alliance Ghana; the West African Forest Programme Office, of the World Wildlife Fund Ghana; the Community Resource Management Support Centre; Conservation International Ghana, and the Ghana Association for the Conservation of Nature, for technical assistance.

The idea is build an eco-friendly computer centre and make the village a digital e-nature study hub for the youth of the area, and also create a mini eco-village for visitor accommodation, using traditional Ashanti-style architecture (the people of Akim Abuakwa Juaso originate from Ashanti Akim Juaso – from whence their ancestors fled after a battle), the building of which will be done by young volunteers from both Ghana and overseas. Linking the eco-village idea, with the combination of a community-run nursery, to grow the many rare ferns and orchids that thrive in our private forest reserve, for export, and the construction of a canopy footbridge (similar to that at Kakum National Park), which will enable visitors to see that part of the Atiwa Range evergreen upland rain forest from the canopy of the forest; will, we hope, generate enough wealth for the community, to guarantee the future of that section of the Atiwa Range upland evergreen rain forest. One finds it hard to understand why at a time of global climate change, the daily assault on that largely-pristine rain forest, by illegal loggers and illegal gold miners can go on with such impunity – without the relevant authorities making an effort to act to halt what is clearly a crime against humanity: in the endangering of on an internationally-recognized biodiversity hotspot. Minister, for the sake of mother Ghana, we entreat you to act immediately to help save this most important of West African rain forests for our country – and ensure a sustainable future for the next generation of Ghanaians: who doubtless will remember that as one of the legacies of your tenure, as one of Ghana’s most effective ministers in charge of the environment ever, thus far, since we gained our independence. Many thanks – and regards. Kofi Thompson.

Post Script: Minister, it just occurs to me that since you were instrumental in ridding an area at Teshie-Nungua of its mountain of garbage (much to the delight of the area’s residents), this little piece of information might be of interest to you: A Norwegian waste-handler, Follo Ren – which does for Norway’s Follo district local authority, what companies like Zoomlion and J. Stanley Owusu & Co. are supposed to do for Ghanaian local authorities, such as the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) – is one of a number of partners collaborating with Professor Petter H. Heyerdahl, of the Norwegian University of Life Sciences, in a microwave-assisted pyrolysis of biomass experimental project. Perhaps you could contact the Norwegian Embassy in Ghana, to see if the relevant faculties in our three public universities; the Ghana Atomic Energy Commission; and the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) could work with Professor Petter Heyerdhal’s faculty too, to enable Ghana eventually acquire the technology.

You could also ask the American Embassy to help you contact Florida‘s St. Lucie County’s solid waste department – who are working with Atlanta-based Geoplasma to build America’s first plasma (a type of superheated gas) waste-to-energy refuse plant in St. Lucie County, Florida. The beauty of that plant is that when the garbage is deposited into a holding-container and heated to 10,000 degrees Fahrenheit, its organic content vaporizes into a hot pressurized gas that then turns a turbine to generate electricity. The steam, which is a by-product of the process, can generate yet more electricity if the appropriate steam turbine plant is built for that purpose. Metals and other inorganic components are condensed and deposited at the bottom of the holding-container – and can apparently be used in heavy construction and in road construction (as roadbed). Both ideas (Norwegian and American) could offer near-perfect solutions to our garbage disposal problems, and bring to an end the difficulty local authorities countrywide face, in finding suitable landfill sites for garbage disposal. Clearly, even the landfill sites themselves, pose a potential danger to Ghana’s water table in the long run, come to think of it. Peace and blessings to you, Minister.