By Sera Matrix
A large swathe of land sporting flooded trenches. On the clearing, the size of 10 football fields in the Amansie South District of the Ashanti Region of Ghana, the devastation is hard to miss. An entire forest and many farmlands have been taken over by a scurry of Chinese miners and their earth-moving machines.
The Amansie South District will go down in history as the community whose indigenes would support a Chinese infiltration of its environment, a green ecosystem being permanently destroyed.
Assisted by rich and powerful Ghanaian businessmen and women, the Chinese miners who took the forests of Manso-Tontokrom, Manso-Edubia, Asuadei, Manso-Abram and its environs with earth-moving equipment have left in their trail a lot of destruction.
The mining industry is the largest tax-paying sector in Ghana and makes a significant contribution to gross domestic product and employment. The mining sector contributes 37 percent of export revenues and 19 percent of all direct tax payments in Ghana.
Artisanal and small-scale mining is estimated to support the livelihoods of some 4.5 million Ghanaians, about 12% of the population. They account for more than 60% of the country’s mining sector labour force. And they’re responsible for most of the destruction to rivers and forests across the country.
Our visit to the forests of Odaho revealed the desolate remains of what used to be a thick forest of trees, some of which had been standing for over a hundred years. The roads through these towns are dotted with excavated, abandoned pits and towns marked by deplorable, dusty roads.
In the district of Amansie South, rivers like Oda, Offin, Subriso are extremely polluted to the point that they’re now akin the colour of sludge in a drain – brownish-red. The introduction of the Changfa mining equipment which directly sit on the river bed largely accounts for the pollution, and consequences have been dire.
At Manso-Abram, we meet Kwaku Boadi, 52. He is one of the thousands of residents bearing the brunt of the Chinese infiltration. As the breadwinner for his two wives and seven children, Kwaku switched from fishing as his livelihood to crop farming because the rivers in the community are too toxic to support any form of aquatic life.
“I know they use some chemicals to mine. When I was a child, my father and I used to catch fish and grill for our meals whilst on the farm. Today, that is all gone. That’s why I had to stop fishing. Nowadays, you even have to go to the farm with your water because the streams from which we got drinking water have all been polluted.”
The course of the Subriso and Oda rivers he used to fish in have been diverted. The brownish-looking water doesn’t bear any signs of life. “There’s a chemical the Chinese use in extracting the gold [mercury]. It destroys the water and kills all the fishes,” he said. Kwaku is one of the many fishermen who have lost their livelihoods to the devastation visited on the community by the Chinese.
In areas like the Tontokrom section of the Odaho forest there were signs of mercury being washed directly into the environment by a group of Chinese and local miners. The water sources here are highly polluted and toxic.
The indigenes told our team they import water from the city because their water sources have become too dangerous to drink. For many residents, the muddy-water-filled pits remain a huge source of discomfort. This is because in many communities, children have fallen into uncovered pits and died.
Akua Fati is a mother of six and a resident of Manso-Adubia. She is worried about the safety of her children. “The pits have left us with floods any time it rains. They are big dugouts too and it is difficult to seal it. Many of these have been abandoned. My fear is that a child may even fall in a pit and die” We are very worried.
Akua is also worried about their inability to drink from the river as they did before the Chinese invaded the community. The river is now polluted and no longer potable. She told us: “In this village, we do not get water from the river to drink due to the pollution. It is worrying.”
The Chinese invasion of Manso Tontokrom, Asuadei, Manso Adubia, Manso-Abram and other communities within the Amansie West was and is still so prevalent.
A collaboration with Ghanaians
The Chinese through their Ghanaian collaborators enter these communities and purchase, in some cases, arable farming lands. Many cocoa farms have been sold this way. Gradually, illegal mining has become the mainstay of the youth, both men and women.
They have built on the Chinese mining technology and in some cases transformed the Changfa into stone crushing equipment to their own mining advantage.
At Manso-Abram we enter into a local community of miners. The deafening sound of over ten stone-crushing equipment fills the air. The equipment are operated by indigenes of the town who say they have no option than to join the illegal mining business.
One of them is 36-year-old Gyasi Amoanu who now operates a gold-processing machine in the community. With a mechanical engineering degree, Amoanu gave up farming because there was no land available.
“I used to pay the landowner about GHS40 ($6) a day for my work on the land. But the Chinese would simply buy an acre of land for GHS30,000 outright. The locals cannot pay this so they sell the lands to the Chinese.” The reward looks so good that many farmers in Manso Abram have sold their cocoa farms to the Chinese for mining.
Amoanu points to a mine site which he said used to be a cocoa farm. “This land the Chinese man is working on, used to be a cocoa farm. But the cocoa farmers are not getting enough benefit from it. A bag of cocoa is sold at GHS600 ($98). They do not even get support in terms of fertilizer or pesticide supplies from the government, but they can get roughly Ghc25,000 ($4,000) for a small piece of land from the Chinese. Who won’t sell to them?”
Amoanu is also concerned about the methods applied by the Chinese in mining. “Apart from mercury, the Chinese also use hydraulic oil for the changfan, and that destroys the soil. Nothing can be cultivated after they’ve desecrated the land.”
No respect for the law
Many of these Chinese miners operate with impunity, thanks to weak law enforcement.
Amoanu said he’s been forced to go into illegal mining to make ends meet.
“The soldiers come here, take money from us and the Chinese and then leave. We have a lot of challenges here. We’re here because of hardship. I am educated but after a long and unsuccessful search for a job, I took to illegal mining. At least, I can make something to feed my family,” Amoanu said.
Local authorities are divided on the issue of Chinese activity in the area. While some fear the future implications of the illegal act, others appreciate the job opportunities it offers the youth of the area.
Unit Committee Chairman for Manso Adubia, Peter Awere, recounts the difficulty in dealing with the problem. “We have taken some steps on this. Our former District Chief Executive was dismissed because of the illegal mining activities he complained about,” he revealed.
“People have really made money and once you raise any concern about the influx of the Chinese here, they bribe officials to work against you. So, it is very difficult to address the problem,” he indicated.
“The assembly has written letters. My assemblyman, some chiefs and I wrote letters to the assembly complaining that we are now a district capital so they must, at least, reduce the illegal mining activities. But because some of these leaders at the assembly themselves are the one who brought in the Chinese, it makes it difficult to fight them and anytime you try, they fight against you and you may even lose your position. But they are fully aware of the situation,” he revealed.
Clement Opoku Gyamfi is the District Chief Executive for the Amansie South. He’s been responding to the concerns. His first clarification is on the origin of the people who’re destroying the forests and rivers.
“The people look like Chinese but it is possible they are nationals of other countries and not necessarily Chinese. As the government representative, I cannot just look into your face and classify you as a citizen of Country A or Country B”.
Mr. Gyamfi went on to talk about what his office was doing to clamp down on illegal mining activities in the Amansie South District.
“The District Security Council has been embarking on clampdowns on illegal mining activities too. We do this unannounced. In February or March this year we did one. When we do, we do not select which nationals we arrest, we only target those destroying the environment, including Ghanaian nationals who are found breaking the law.”
“It is a crisis situation and we need the media, the security services to be able to deal with illegal mining. We need collaboration with the central government to fight the menace”. Gyasi Amonu, Akua Fati and Kwaku Boadi know very well that a lot has changed where they live. A change for the worse. But as commoners, there’s little they can do when the system does not punish wrongs and protect the people.