The negative environmental impacts of the activities of illegal gold miners have now become pretty obvious to most Ghanaians.
The question is: Should we allow illegal gold miners to continue undermining our quality of life - and that of future generations - with such impunity?
Furthermore, why are so many of our nation's politicians and political parties strangely silent about that troubling monstrosity spanning the entire country?
Is it because some of the most powerful amongst of them are beholden to the wealthy criminal syndicates behind the illegal gold mining and illegal logging now going on in our country - as many in Ghana allege?
As forests containing their headwaters are severely degraded, scores of streams and rivers across vast swathes of the Ghanaian countryside, are drying up - causing severe shortages of treated drinking water in many towns and cities: as reservoirs of water treatment plants fall to dangerously low levels, seldom seen before.
Clearly, it no longer makes sense to allow those destroying the natural environment, in their quest for gold, to continue doing so at such a rapid rate in a nation in which the rule of law is said to prevail.
It is imperative that we live in harmony with Mother Nature - just as our forebears did before the first Europeans set foot on our shores.
As a people, it served us well then - and will do so again, if we are more protective of what is left of our natural heritage, going forward into the far distant future.
Drastic measures need to be taken by the authorities to arrest the situation. The price society is now paying for tolerating illegal gold mining in Ghana is no longer worth paying.
It must be brought to an end before it destroys life as we know it today. Using 32-tonne excavators is not artisanal mining - it is mining on an industrial scale: not small-scale mining. Surely, that ought to be self-evident by now to even obtuse officialdom?
To issue small-scale mining licenses to gold miners using excavators is therefore unconscionable, unpardonable, unspeakable and abominable - given the amount of environmental degradation they are causing across Ghana.
It will be prudent to place a temporary ban on all gold mining in Ghana - both legal and illegal - lasting for a period not less than ninety days, within which new permits must be applied for, and obtained, for all gold mining sites in Ghana by their operators.
In light of the massive environmental destruction, which has gone on in illegal gold mining sites across the nation, we need to make a fresh start - and let sanity prevail in the gold mining industry.
No new permits must be issued without physical inspection of sites by Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Minerals Commission officials - costs of which must be borne by those applying for the permits.
In the post-moratorium era, when legitimate gold mining operations are allowed to resume again, no gold mining must be allowed to be carried out anywhere in Ghana, without the new Minerals Commission/EPA mining permits. Ever.
The tragic death of AngloGold Ashanti's public affairs manager, Mr. John Owusu, at Obuasi, not too long ago, when he was knocked down by a reversing company vehicle, as people scrambled to escape from violent illegal gold miners, who caused a stampede, when they charged at AngloGold Ashanti's employees at the company's Obuasi concession, must not be in vain.
All gold miners in Ghana - both legal and illegal ones - who flout such a Minerals Commission/EPA edict requiring that all gold miners obtain new mining permits, must be prosecuted - and face mandatory jail sentences of not less than ten years.
That will be deterrent enough, for many of those tempted to participate in this egregious crime, against humankind.
Issued new Minerals Commission/EPA mining permits must be promptly withdrawn from gold miners whose operations pollute streams, rivers and other water bodies, and degrade forests that contain their headwaters.
The quality of life of present-day Ghanaians, and that of future generations, must not be sacrificed on the alter-of-greed-for-gold, for the benefit of a selfish and powerful few, with greedy ambitions - to paraphrase Ghana's first President, Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, of blessed memory, who would never have allowed this outrage to occur, were he in power today.
And neither would a present-day Convention People's Party (CPP) government allow it either, if it was in power now, incidentally.
Those engaged in illegal gold mining simply don't care about the effect of their actions on their fellow humans and on the natural environment. We must therefore not pity them either when the long arm of the law finally catches up with them - for they are gradually destroying our homeland Ghana: with their eyes fully open.
Enough is enough. Our natural heritage must not be allowed to be destroyed just so that a few callous, ruthless and unethical businesspeople, putting profit ahead of the common good, and the welfare of millions of Ghanaians, can send their personal net worth to stratospheric heights - by buying land and mining gold illegally at unauthorised areas: and funding their operations with proceeds from the sale of bush-cut lumber from illegal logging.
At a time of global climate change, illegal gold miners must not be given free rein to threaten the sources of our nation's treated drinking water supplies, pollute soils, streams, rivers and other water bodies with heavy metals, and other toxic chemicals, and degrade forests in Ghana on top of all that, with total impunity. That is simply intolerable.
It must be halted by officialdom. Now. Not tomorrow - when it will be way too late, to save us from a water-distressed, apocalyptic future: in a barren and unpleasant land full of never-ending misery and untold hardship. We can only save ourselves from such a bleak future, today, by preventing illegal gold miners from continuing to destroy forests, and polluting soils, streams, rivers and other water bodies.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment