Galamsey Menace: A Pressing Need Requiring Urgent Action
It’s increasingly clear that the public’s tolerance for the illegal mining moniker “galamsey” has reached a breaking point, leading to protests and the potential threat of a strike by Ghana’s Trade Union Congress (TUC). While galamsey severely impacts our ecological diversity, we have yet to collectively address the problem from a scientific and socioeconomic perspective.
I firmly believe, without reservation, that the current ‘gavage’ approach, where the government uses security forces to shut down illegal mining sites, is not a sustainable solution. It will only provide a temporary relief. Therefore, it’s crucial to delve deeper into why people view illegal mining as a viable occupation despite the numerous health-related effects. Many of these effects are already evident in the mining communities.
We can only propose lasting solutions to the menace when we fully understand the problem. Through such a comprehensive process, we can ensure a permanent end to these destructive practices in the future, offering hope for a better tomorrow.
Before delving into what must be done to address the situation, it is crucial to understand that the menace of illegal mining occurs anywhere natural resources abound. The West heavily relied on coal fuels during the Industrial Revolution despite their known impact on global climate. Timber and oil have also suffered over-exploitation in regions where they are found in large quantities.
The Amazon region is now in danger because of illegal logging and mining. The fact of life is that people will always seek to exploit natural resources so long as private gains exceed private costs. Since participants in these illegal acts only consider their private gains against their costs, their motivation to continue may be positive, especially since their benefits outweigh their costs.
The rest of us are looking at the social cost of illegal mining in our lives. Our failure to understand the dichotomy between the private and social costs and benefits- if any- has impaired the solutions we have proffered over the years to deal with the situation. The call by TUC also falls squarely in this misunderstanding of the problem.
So, the question is how we make participants in galamsey understand that their private benefits are eroded by the massive social cost manifesting through the contamination of water bodies and cocoa beans, destruction of farmlands, aggravating public health, and jeopardising national security.
Though research has shown a positive impact of sustainable mining on economic growth, its environmental impacts, including deforestation, water pollution, and soil degradation, have also been acknowledged. The social costs of illegal mining are grave, and no amount of private benefits can match them. But do those undertaking these illegal activities understand these concerns? Clearly, no!
I visited one of the popular galamsey towns in the Ashanti region sometime last year. Out of curiosity, I questioned a few of the young men from the town actively involved in the trade to find out why they were engaged in that dangerous vocation. Their answer was simple: we do not have any other lucrative alternatives.
They told me that agriculture, their decades-old mainstay, has failed to alleviate poverty in their communities. As many seek to break the poverty jinx, they have resorted to any vocation within their jurisdiction. Hence, the influx of people into galamsey. Surprisingly, many galamseyers knew that their mining methods these days would have dire consequences for future generations. They acknowledged that the notion of bequeathing valuable lands to the next generation had long been jettisoned.
In the mix of this convoluting situation, there is the need to look at the problem dispassionately, devoid of politics, emotions and social pressure. The first approach to a lasting solution is to provide alternate but lucrative job opportunities for galamseyers – “one mining town, one factory.” The World Bank recently committed to supporting sustainable mining practices and alternative livelihoods for communities affected by galamsey in Ghana.
The support, among others, covers providing employable skills to miners, start-up support, and reclamation of destroyed lands. Other development partners have also hinted at their intention to support Ghana in finding a lasting solution to the menace. We must aggressively provide alternative livelihoods that remove the incentive for miners to return to the mine sites.
Government may establish a factory in each galamsey town to provide alternative employment for locals. This must be deliberate, and through government handouts, remuneration must be attractive enough to prevent them from returning to the pits.
Secondly, Government must implement a transparent and less cumbersome small-scale mining registration system. The simplified registration arrangements will serve as an incentive for illegal miners to regularise their operations. Also, sustainable mining must be built into the business process.
Government can support this by training the small mines in sustainable mining that is also profitable. Government may also attach small-scale mines to large-scale mines so they can learn some of the best mining practices.
Thirdly, opinion leaders must be supported with training and funding to oversee all forms of mining in their communities. Mining takes place in communities and is led, in many cases, by known community members. To address galamsey sustainably will require local community support. Here, the Chiefs and opinion leaders are important stakeholders since they hold the lands in trust for their people.
Local watchdog committees must be established within mining communities to provide technical assistance to community-level mines. Sufficient training is required for such local watchdog committees to do their work effectively. Without local partnership, the galamsey fight may not be won.
Fourthly, the deployment of technology for monitoring and inspection purposes is critical. Ghana has built a robust technological infrastructure over the past decade, including drone technology. We need to start using such technological tools to collect independent data from mine sites to determine whether mining companies (small and large) are complying with mining standards.
Also, new mining techniques must be handed down to small-scale mining companies to move them closer to sustainable mining practices.
Lastly, we must ensure foreigners do not participate in small-scale mining in Ghana. Undeniably, the influence of foreigners in galamsey has been a critical factor that has brought us to this state. Many foreigners (far and near) have either participated directly in the illegal activity or have become financial linchpins for many galamseyers.
They continue to provide equipment and other inputs to aid the unlawful vocation. I know the problem of foreigners on galamsey can only be addressed diplomatically, but it must be swift. It will require establishing prohibition protocols for countries whose nationals are actively pursuing this illegal activity.
The solution to galamsey doesn’t lie in protests but in having a united front across Political Parties, Unions, and Civil Societies, among others. We must provide decent alternative livelihoods for the millions engaged in illegal mining, establish a transparent small-scale mining registration process, involve local authorities in cramping down galamsey, and address wholistically foreign participation by putting in place prohibition protocols.
We can effectively tackle galamsey only through our united efforts, as strength lies in our collective action.
