Chamber of Agribusiness Ghana Decries ‘State-Supervised Ecocide’ as Illegal Mining Contaminants Seep into Food Chain
The Chamber of Agribusiness Ghana has joined mounting calls for urgent government action to halt illegal mining, warning that the practice is contaminating farmland and water sources and poses an existential threat to the country’s food security.
In a statement released on Tuesday, September 23, 2025, the group said mercury, arsenic and lead from mining sites were seeping into soil, rivers and fish stocks, creating what it described as a “state-supervised ecocide”.
“Konongo Zongo soil carries arsenic at 4,000 per cent above safe levels. Fish from Akwaboso contain lead concentrations that exceed WHO limits. Vegetables in the Western North are laced with dangerous heavy metals,” the chamber noted, citing recent studies.
Anthony Kofi Tuom Morrison, chief executive of the chamber, said the effects go beyond environmental concerns. “We are not just losing forests and rivers; we are actively poisoning our food at its source,” he said.
The chamber called on government to declare a moratorium on illegal mining in watersheds and agricultural lands, repeal regulations allowing mining in forest reserves, and prosecute financiers of such operations “regardless of their political or social status”.
It also urged the creation of a national fund to rehabilitate polluted soils and water bodies.
The intervention comes after similar warnings from the Ghana Catholic Bishops’ Conference and the Coalition against Galamsey, a civic movement opposing illegal mining.
“With agriculture undermined, food security compromised and investment deterred, we are digging our own graves with excavators,” the chamber warned, stressing that decisive action was needed to safeguard the sector, which is central to Ghana’s economy and employment.
