Editorial by Ghanaian Times: Fight against galamsey must be won!!

Today, the Ghana Water Limited (GWL) reports that illegal mining ac­tivities (galamsey) along the Pra River in the Central Region is making it almost impossible for it to extract raw water from its Sekyere Hemang Treatment Plant to supply adequate potable water to residents of Cape Coast, Elmi­na and surrounding communities.

The company says currently, the plant can produce only a quarter of its installed capacity because about 60 percent of the river’s catchment area was silted as a result of illegal mining, which compromises the quantity and quality of the raw water.

This problem replicates itself in relative terms wherever galamsey is happening and this is a huge problem in the country, considering the importance of water to the very existence of the society.

While campaigning in 2016 to win power to assume the country’s Presidency in 2017, candidate Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo vowed to fight galamsey upon assuming office.

Fortunately, he won power and subsequently launched the war against galamsey because of its devastating impacts on the environment, including the pollution of sources of water in the country.

A lot of state resources have gone into the fight yet galamsey has become insoluble and Presi­dent Akufo-Addo himself once admitted it.

At a natural resource stake­holders’ dialogue in Accra in May 2023, the President said despite massive success in the fight against galamsey, the practice still remained an existential threat and that galamsey must be stopped.

To that end, he said the fight against illegal mining could be won if all Ghanaians got involved and urged them not to rest until the menace had ceased.

Earlier on October 16, 2022, while at the Manhyia Palace in Kumasi at the start of a four-day tour of the Ashanti Region, President Akufo-Addo had said, “We are here to eradicate galamsey and surely, it would be eradicated.”

Way back on July 10, 2017, in Accra, while addressing a two-day workshop on galamsey for traditional leaders drawn from different parts of the country, the President said: “I have said it in the Cabinet, and perhaps this is the first time I am making this public, that I am prepared to put my Presidency on the line on this matter.”

If in the midst of all this avowed commitment and clout, the President and his gov­ernment are yet to win the fight against galamsey, the Ghanaian Times wonders which various avenues the Ghana Water Limited would explore to stop galamsey in the country’s water bodies which are the sources of water it needs to supply for use by the people of this country.

Everyone, indeed, is expected to join the fight against galamsey but the government must spear­head it with support from chiefs and security personnel.

To this end, the government must be resolute in its vow to eradicate the menace, rather than the public remarks that are just charades and populism.

The Ghanaian Times, thus, would like to ask the political parties in the country, particularly the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and National Democratic Con­gress (NDC), to tell the public what provisions they have in their manifestoes for Election 2024 on how they are going to sustain the victory if President Akufo-Addo wins the galamsey fight before he leaves office on January 7, 2025.

Alternatively, let the NPP and NDC tell Ghanaians how they would assume the fight and win it should the NPP “break the 8” or the NDC curtail that dream.

This is important because water crises in the country affect every resident.