By Belinda Nketia
Environmental activist Awula Serwah critiqued the government’s handling of the Galamsey crisis during a Zoom interview on GTV’s Breakfast Show on Friday 13th February, 2025.
Speaking with host Kafui Dey, Serwah argued that the government possesses the power to eradicate illegal mining but is being held back by a lack of political will and the entanglement of powerful figures in the illicit industry.
“To see people put their lives at risk to highlight what is going on and no action is being taken, it’s heartbreaking,” Serwah stated, referencing the threats and violence faced by journalists and anti-Galamsey activists like Master Erastus Asare-Donkor. “They deserve all our praise and all our prayers.”
Serwah commended anti -galamsey activist and others who have put their lives at risk even though they have been beaten but they still continue to uncover the ugly side of Galamsey activities
Her central argument was that the government could resolve the Galamsey issue within months if it were truly committed. “Army officers have told us time and time again that they can stop this menace in the space of 3 months or less, but they need the authority to act with no political interference,” she revealed. “For heaven’s sake, declare a state of emergency or issue an executive order and flush them out!”
Serwah advocated for the president to use his executive powers as commander-in-chief to declare certain areas “no-go zones,” allowing the military to remove illegal miners and enable forest guards to operate without fear. She emphasized the threat posed by heavily armed Galamsey operators who can repel armed response teams.
“It was done when COVID happened. We can do same,” she argued, drawing a parallel between the government’s decisive response to the pandemic and the urgency required to address Galamsey.
Serwah painted a grim picture of the consequences of unchecked Galamsey, citing health crises like a rise in kidney disease, deformed babies, and maternal deaths, as well as the poisoning of water bodies and soil, jeopardizing the livelihoods of farmers and fishermen. She also highlighted concerns about contaminated food crops.
“We are all playing our roles, but what can we do when the operators are heavily armed?” Serwah asked rhetorically. She warned that current efforts to address corruption and economic issues are futile if the government fails to tackle the root causes of environmental destruction and health risks caused by Galamsey. “Issuing statements and hiding their heads under the sand like ostriches will not make the problem go away. The problem becomes worse every minute that we refuse to take action we know we should take.”
Serwah believes the root cause is the involvement of powerful figures within both major political parties in the country. “The illegal mining is being done by players, some of whom we saw from Prof. Frimpong Boateng’s report, are highly connected to those in power. The two main political parties in Ghana have their people involved, and are finding it very difficult to clamp down on it,” she concluded.
The issue of illegal mining (Galamsey), the mining of gold in a crude and illegal manner is fast becoming a menace in Ghana despite government’s efforts to curb it.
2 Responses
“Now!!!” means immediately or instantly, else we should hit the streets sooner than later. Enough of politrixians politicking us! No more “final warnings”. No more playing with our lives! Which part of “existential threat” don’t our Misrulers understand?!
Aluta continua!
Before the elections and before coming to power, the current administration signed a pact with GCAG together with other presidential candidates to declare a state of emergency and end galamsey immediately they came to power. Now is the time to actualize that pact; otherwise, they should not send the police and security personnel to crack down on the youth activists should they decide to embark on ” STOP GALAMSEY NOW demonstrations again”.
If they are bereft of ideas and solutions, even lay Ghanaians have proposed the way to eliminate galamsey; and so, why are they not listening? JUST DO THEM!!!👇
1. DECLARE A STATE OF EMERGENCY; Ban galamsey and REPEAL L.I. 2462 AND E.I.144 and actively and relentlessly ENFORCE THEM THROUGH LAW ENFORCEMENT.
2. Map out ALL active galamsey sites across the country by drone, helicopter, navy speed boats and ground military and with the help of whistle blowers.
3. Relentlessly activate law enforcement (military, navy speed boats patrolling our waterbodies, Airforce, police, security personnel, employment of local vigilante groups and whistle blowers.
4. As C-in-C, the President should order for the arrest and prosecuting and jailing of security personnel who protect galamseyers and punish the superiors of security personnel if this is not done (Punishing from the top)
5. Educate the public by creating public awareness, during a probationary period about the ban and the consequences of flouting the ban (arrest, prosecution, jail, shoot at galamsey sites by air, boat and land patrol)
6. Order Ministry of land and Mineral Resources to stop issuing mining concessions. Punish offenders.
7. Withdraw and review or cancel all existing small scale mining concessions.
8. Identify the galamsey kingpins (Some alleged politicians, illegal Chinese immigrants, some chiefs, some personnel of lands and Mineral resources and also forestry…), arrest and prosecute them.
9. Create jobs for the galamsey underlings (the jobless youth) through water purificarion and land reclamation efforts at the galamsey sites eg through government controlled plantations of special land crops and water plants (phyto- remediation) that extract heavy metals, including mercury and cyanide from the soil and waterbodies, among other remedial measures.
10. Create jobs for the youth by investing through mechanized drone-controlled agriculture and factory processing and added value of agric produce along the value chain for home consumption and export to generate revenue.
11. After a lengthy period of ban, evaluate the waterbodies to gauge the level of mercury and cyanide contamination and determine the progress/success of remediation exercise.
12. After clearing the waterbodies enough of mercury and cyanide, introduce regulated and sustainable small scale community mining with the help of relevant contemporary technology as explained by Dr. Solomon Owusu, the Ghanaian mining engineer of Denver, Colorado.
13. In addition to calling on the expertise of Dr. Solomon Owusu, we have the School of Mines with qualified Staff who may be able to teach Sustainable mining and other best practices.
With this core resource (plus others yet to be identified) we may be able to design a certificate course for sustainable artisanal mining operators.
Suspend artisanal mining until the first batch graduates come out of school.
14. Investigate professor Frimpong Boateng’s report on politicians involved in galamsey and arrest and prosecute them, if the evidence is strong.