Open Letter To The President On Illegal Mining

Dear Mr. President, I trust that you and your family are in good health and you are on course to surmount all challenges confronting our nation, Ghana. I write to you as a citizen of Ghana and an Environmental Engineer who has been following the discourse on the fight against galamsey and small-scale mining in recent times. I have been listening to the Ministers responsible for Lands and the Environment with their efforts to stem the tide. In the process various committees have been formed and are been formed all with the goal of stopping this menace.

Mr. President, you would recall that during the previous administration or even going back to your first Presidency, committees and task forces of different names were formed to address the challenge, but what do we see, the miners are still emboldened. Task forces breed corruption and, in the process, even some senior military and police officers were compromised and this is the result of the situation we are in.

This fight has not been easy and we all know that some traditional leaders are even neck deep in this illegal mining. Even Mr President, some cocoa farmers trumpet their success in life to galamsey so the road is very rough. Increasingly, the courts are even becoming weary with this issue.

I have been part of a documentary been broadcast by Joynews on national television where we have all agreed that the pollution of the water bodies and the degradation of our forest cover as a result of the illegal mining must stop. There has been burning of mine equipments especially land moving ones like excavators, all to no avail.

I have been hearing tough talk from environmental journalists, politicians and many others and even asking you to declare a state of emergency to fight the illegal miners. Some have even suggested a shoot to kill policy. Mr President, let no one lead you into temptation for all those proclamations are human rights issues and you could be hauled to the UN court to face justice alone. Mr President, let us all agree that this fight has now escalated to a war situation.

The former Minister of Lands and Natural Resources in the previous administration conceded and I think the current Hon Ministers responsible for Land and Environment may be thinking along the same lines. I empathise with them but I don’t envy them. Their task is daunting. However, it must be accepted that winning wars on the battlefield these days, has not been possible and still not going to be easy with this current war we are fighting. Such situations call for dialogue and negotiations.

Mr President, you would agree with me that the current situation in Bawku can only be resolved through negotiations which you have started already as happened in the Dagbon case. Even on the international front, the current war in Ukraine is now been negotiated.

This process in the long run creates a win-win situation and peace will prevail. Our ultimate goal is to mine the gold for economic development and not compromising our water bodies and the forest reserves.

The Goldbod comes to mind. Mr President, the propositions I am going to proffer here in this letter have been discussed with my post-graduate students and I think it is worth looking at them and may be discussions can continue at higher level. The following are the key points: The first is to look for an unbiased negotiator or negotiating team to be the arbiter for the government on one side and the miners on the other. Those tough talkers should not be part of this team.

The team may comprise human rights advocates, CSOs, mining engineers and many more. Secondly, the concession owners must be identified. I think the Minerals Commission will have the data. The owners should be encouraged and motivated to put all miners in their respective concessions under one umbrella and even escalate it to medium scale mining entity with a company tag.

Thirdly, the entities must be motivated to set up offices in their areas of operation with access to the mining sites. The office must employ an administrator, two environmental officers and key technical staff like mechanics and electricians.

The environmental officers would serve as liaison between mine inspectors and the entities and for community relations as well. During this period, all operations have to be halted for the environmental officers to supervise the construction of tailings dams with support from government-certified engineers.

This will ensure that, leachate from mineral processing will not enter the water bodies whilst at the same time laboratory tests will be carried out to check other water quality parameters. Fourthly, the excavators, which otherwise would have been burnt, should be used to cover the existing mine pits before mining operations resume.

The environmental officers will liaise with the Forestry Commission to plant some climate resilient tree species on the reclaimed land. The environmental officers shall continue to monitor the mine operations from within and advise management of the entities if there are potential breaches. Mining pits can be strengthened with support from structural engineers.

Lastly, as the operations are to commence, all guns used by the miners should be surrendered to the negotiating team with support from security agencies. At the same time, tough talk by government functionaries and politicians must cease so as to give the peace of mind they require to mine responsibly.

Mr President, these key points should form the basis of the negotiations. Let no one deceive us that we can win this war in any Rambo style. The only way to go is dialogue. The hawks may advise otherwise, but will lead us nowhere. We shall continue to lose the young ones if we go on that trajectory. Let us not waste our meagre resources on a war that we cannot win. Yours truly, Anthony Osei-Twumasi (PhD)

By Dr Anthony Osei-Twumasi

Editor’s note: Views expressed in this article do not represent that of The Chronicle

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