Ghana’s illegal gold mining industry is wreaking havoc on the environment

Water from a polluted river in Ghana was so thick and changed that an artist was able to use it as paint to depict the environmental destruction caused by illegal gold mining that has spread like wildfire in the resource-rich West African state.

Mercury is increasingly being used to extract gold by miners who strip forests and farms on a large scale, destroying land and polluting rivers to the extent that the charity WaterAid has called it “ecocide”.

“I could actually paint with water. It was terrible,” Israeli Derrick Apeti, known as Enil Art, told the BBC.

He and his friend Jay Sterling visited the Pra River – 200 kilometers (125 miles) west of the capital, Accra – to make a point about the environmental disaster caused by “galamsey”.

This is the term used by locals to describe the illegal mining that takes place in thousands of places across the country – including forested regions famous for their cacao plantations, and gold reserves.

The West African country is the sixth largest exporter of gold in the world, and the second largest exporter of cocoa.

Protesters recently took to the streets of Accra to demand that the Government take steps to end illegal mining. The police responded by arresting a number of protesters suspected of having an illegal assembly. They were released again as anger grew over their arrest.

The hashtags #stopgalamseynow and #freethecitizens are being used to mobilize young people across Ghana and abroad, especially in Canada and the UK, to voice their concerns.

Apeti told the BBC that he has decided to contribute to the campaign through art.

“What is art?” he said, adding: “We were on our way to the river, I just thought that maybe I could paint with dirty water. It just came to me like that. When we got there, I tried it and it worked.”

The communities along the river – one of the largest in Ghana – complained to Apeti that the water “was once so clean that you could see fish and crocodiles living in it”, but it had been changed “to a yellow-brown body. water”.

Ghanaian music stars have also ignored the campaign.

Black Sherif – who hails from Konongo town in the Ashanti region, which has been heavily affected by illegal mining – stopped his set at the Tidal Rave Concert in Accra earlier this month to show a video of the devastation.

Truth Ofori, who was part of Black Sherif’s set, then sang the patriotic song “This is our home”, while Stonebowy used his set to sing “Greedy Men”, which he targeted those behind the galamsey.

The damage was caused by the fact that the situation of illegal mining has changed – previously, unemployed young men were digging with picks and shovels, or with bare hands, looking for gold.

They also rely on generosity – washing the soil through a sieve so that the gold settles on the ground.

But Chinese businessmen – who first moved to Ghana 18 years ago – have turned it into a thriving industry.

They are accused of ignoring environmental concerns and taking to heart the old saying: “There is no land in Ghana without gold, even in the top soil. Ghana is gold.”

Indeed, in colonial times this country was known as the Gold Coast.

Some local businessmen and politicians are suspected to have joined them in the so-called “mad gold rush”, they bought cocoa farms and turned them into illegal mining sites.

They are also accused of using intimidation if the farmer refuses to sell by digging footpaths, forcing them to give up the land.

An estimated 4,726 hectares of land – more than the size of European cities such as Athens and Brussels – have been destroyed in seven of the country’s 16 regions, as well as 34 of 288 nature reserves, the head of the Ghana Forestry Commission. John Allotey was quoted as saying in August.

Agricultural development coordinator Dr John Manful told the BBC that “precious, precious land” in the forest belt has been destroyed by gold seekers.

“Illegal small-scale mining has been going on in Ghana for decades. However, in recent years, it has been out of control, with disastrous results,” he said.

Mining has led to the felling of trees, and the clearing of large areas of forest. Excavators are then used to excavate topsoil and subsoil.

The soil is then put into gold washing plants set up in the rivers, and water is pumped to wash the soil and crushed stones.

During the washing process, various chemicals, including mercury and cyanide, are used to help extract the gold from the soil, polluting large and small rivers.

Highlighting the dangers of this, Dr. George Manful, former chief executive of the Environmental Protection Agency in Ghana, said: “Mercury can stay in water for 1,000 years. The water in these rivers is so mixed that it is not drinkable.”

In an interview with local radio station Joy FM, he also revealed that mercury may affect the entire food system, as it accumulates in fish and can enter plants that are irrigated with water.

“We are slowly poisoning ourselves,” added Dr Manful.

For its part, WaterAid called on the government to “take immediate action to end the ecocide”, while the government’s water agency warned that Ghana risks becoming a water exporter by 2030 if illegal drilling is not stopped.

In September, the government said 76 people, including 18 foreigners, had been arrested for illegal mining since August 2021, and more than 850 others were being prosecuted.

Illegal mining has also affected cocoa production, with the Ghana Cocoa Board saying that by 2021 more than 19,000 hectares of farms would be destroyed in key cocoa-growing areas such as the Western and Ashanti regions.

Echoing the board’s concerns earlier this week, its CEO Joseph Boahen Aidoo said production of cocoa – a key ingredient in chocolate – has declined.

“Yes, it is [taken] risk in the industry,” he was quoted as saying Ghana’s Chronicle news site.

Illegal mining has also affected other crops, with a rice farmer in Ahafo district telling the BBC he can no longer use his nearby river for irrigation.

“I have to establish a whole industry that includes digging deep to get water, which is expensive,” he said.

The farmer, who asked not to be named, said he fears that the problem will continue if people who have the power to mine illegally are not arrested and prosecuted.

“When I see the arrest of soldiers in poor communities, it is a sign that they seem to maintain law and order. People who make a lot of money are in the office, not in the field,” he said.

The government did not respond to the BBC’s request for comment.

The gold rush was also inspired by that The global price of the precious metal rose to a new highand is expected to continue to do so.

Therefore, informal organizations in Ghana promote production.

This gold is smuggled out – possibly to countries such as the United Arab Emirates, China and India – to be refined, mixed with official gold, and sold on international markets, says BBC business reporter Jewel Kiriungi. a World Service podcast that explores the topic.

The illegal industry is also flourishing because Ghana, despite being rich in resources, is facing its biggest economic crisis in a generation, as unemployment worsens and the cost of living rises.

Because of this, many poor or unemployed people – especially in rural areas – have been employed by illegal syndicates, or have taken it upon themselves to dig for gold, earning up to 2,000 cedis ($125; £96) a week – the average monthly salary of a teacher.

Apeti, the singer, said that when he visited the Pra river, he was told by the people of the area that the officials always raid and destroy the miners’ equipment.

“But that would not be enough to stop them from looking for gold, as they would return at night to start mining again,” he said.

As protests continued in Accra to highlight the damage, Ghana’s President Nana Akufo-Addo responded last week by saying. orders the deployment of naval vessels “to ensure the immediate cessation of all mining activities, legal or illegal, in and around these water bodies”.

But some senior officials in the ruling party, the National Peoples Party (NPP) said they did not expect a big fight as many of their supporters in the mining districts are involved in the galamsey – and the party will not be in danger of losing their votes in the December national elections.

The popularity of galamsey was proved by research conducted by WaterAid in communities involved in illegal mining in the Upper East Region of Ghana, especially Bongo and Bawku West districts.

More than 75% of those questioned saw this practice as a source of great profit despite 97% of them agreeing that it harms the environment and water sources.

“Shockingly, 79% reported health problems, such as chest pains, directly linked to their work in illegal mining,” added WaterAid.

When President Akufo-Addo took office in 2017, he admitted that there are security guards, businessmen and politicians involved in the galamsey.

He vowed that “he will not only stop it, take back the land, let our rivers work again”, but also help “all the strong young men who are involved in this project to find another way to make a living”.

With Akufo-Addo due to step down at the end of his two terms, his critics say he failed to deliver on his promise and the problem worsened during his tenure, putting at risk – as he put it in 2017 – “the survival of the country. our nation”.