Editorial: Galamsey: Is Ghana Not Hurting Itself?

Despite numerous military raids and significant investments aimed at curbing illegal mining, the situation in Ghana’s forest reserves, particularly the Tano Anwia Forest Reserve, in the Ashanti Region, continues to deteriorate.

Media reports indicate that illegal miners – commonly referred to as galamseyers – remain defiant, violating environmental laws with impunity. What is unfolding before our eyes is no longer a mere threat; it is a full-blown environmental catastrophe.

Efforts by successive governments have barely made a dent in the fight against this menace. From Operation Vanguard to the deployment of drones that reportedly cost the nation $2 million and the GH¢70 million spent on personnel and other logistics, between 2021 and 2024, Ghana has really poured vast sums into fighting galamsey. Yet the crisis deepens, exposing the systemic failures within our enforcement institutions.

Recent developments in the Western Region, especially the burning of Abrewa Ne Nkra, a known illegal mining settlement housing over 10,000 squatters, further highlights the gravity of the crisis.

What is most troubling is the involvement of foreign nationals, who exploit Ghana’s hospitality and weak immigration controls to partake in environmental destruction and lawlessness. If illegal immigrants can brandish weapons and openly threaten our security forces, we must ask ourselves, is our immigration service functioning or are our borders secure?

Even more baffling is how heavy mining equipment finds its way into protected forest areas despite the numerous security checkpoints across the country. Someone is clearly sleeping on the job – or worse, colluding with the very criminals they are tasked to stop.

Ghana is steadily marching toward a dangerous precipice, risking the fate of countries like Nauru – a stark example of the ‘resource curse.’ Once rich in phosphate, Nauru became one of the world’s wealthiest nations per capita, only to lose it all to short-sighted resource exploitation. Today, it stands as a cautionary tale of how a nation can mine itself into oblivion.

If we fail to act decisively, Ghana too will become the country that hates itself – consuming its forests, poisoning its rivers, sacrificing its future for fleeting riches. We urge the government to overhaul the security and immigration systems, hold complicit officials accountable and adopt a more sustainable, technology-driven approach to resource management.

The Chronicle also welcomes the announcement by the Minister for Interior, Mohammed Muntaka that he had instructed the police administration to transfer all Regional Commanders in the mining enclaves. Though The Chronicle does not have any evidence to suggest that these regional police commanders have been compromised in the galamsey fight, it beats our imagination that despite all the huge resources the state had made available, this battle has still not been warned.

But much as we support the transfer of the police commanders, the government may be wrong if it focuses on only the police and leave out other state actors. We suggested to President Mahama, in an earlier editorial, to sack Municipal and District Chief executives in the mining areas if they fail to bring the galamsey menace under control in their respective areas.

We still stand by this because it is only compromised MCEs that will sit down idle whilst illegal miners are devastating the very environment they are supposed to protect. As MCE or DCE, he or she knows every nook and cranny of the district. These DCEs cannot, therefore, give any alibi that they are unaware of what is going on their areas.

Though our military, as we all know, is a well-respected institution, it came out two or so years ago that some of the personnel deployed to the mining areas had been compromised. The Chronicle, therefore, expects government to keep an eagle eye on them whenever they are deployed.

As we have always stated in this column, illegal mining and the accompanying pollution of water bodies is an existential threat to the survival of this country. Every Ghanaian must, therefore, put his or her shoulder to the wheel to ensure that the battle against galamsey is won for the generation yet unborn. Our natural wealth should be a blessing – not a curse. The time to act is now!

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