Galamsey: A deadly nation wrecking menace we must collectively fight

Ahead of the 2020 election, I was at Manso Adubia to campaign as part of activities of my political party and a member of the mushroom group NPP ADVOCATES. I was shocked by the level of degradation that had taken place. No human in his or her right senses would smile seeing such level of environmental devastation that had taken place out of Galamsey. Throughout the Manso stretch and largely all Galamsey areas, the communities do not have a future except for some magic happening. The younger generation from those areas must be mourning gravely if they have a conscience. The galamsey menace goes beyond just the destruction of the community in question but a national canker. We must deliberately tackle this menace with patriotism devoid of non-partisanship. Ghana must be at war with Galamsey. Our waters are destroyed, the soil fertility is destroyed, the use of chemicals to tilt the land for farming purposes is cancerous to our health, the inconsiderate felling of trees is more dangerous to our existence, etc. Unfortunately, statistical records available largely indicate that the people within these mining areas live in abject poverty. Concerning infrastructural development, these areas have nothing encouraging to boast of. No good roads, no good schools, and no health facilities, just to mention a few. In most of the Galamsey-prone areas where our country's waters, land, and forest reserves are being greedily destroyed, it seems that most of the illegal miners are non-natives of the communities and for that matter their inconsiderate devastation of the natural resources there. Equally, most of these illegal mining concessions are owned by persons who do not get themselves dirty and risk their lives to be trapped in dark pits. Everything about galamsey is bad, evil, deadly, and devastating to human life. Only persons without conscience would speak in defense of this national disaster. Ghana is bleeding. Action now against Galamsey or we forever regret that we were so greedy so much so that we destroyed our land for peanuts in the name of mining for gold.