Mining is one of Ghana's most important economic sectors, contributing billions of dollars to the economy and providing thousands of jobs. But the cost of this wealth has been high. Our forests are disappearing, and our water bodies are under threat.

For years, Ghana struggled to measure just how much land and forest cover had been lost to mining. Both legal and illegal.

That changed in 2023, when for the first time, scientists at the Ghana Space Science and Technology Institute were able to put actual numbers to the destruction.

"Between 2007 and 2023, we've lost almost 55,000 hectares of land. And how did we do it? We were able to do it with satellites. So we took satellite images from 2007, 2008, and 2009 of the same location. Then we monitored the area that we are losing. Then we did ground studies to validate the satellite data,” Dr. Joseph Bremang Tandoh said.

The findings were alarming. But just a year later, when the scientists updated their data, the situation had worsened.

“A little over 59,000 hectares of land have been converted to mining. So if you have lost that vegetation, and if you translate that, that amounts to about 84,000 football parks. That's quite a lot.

"And from 2015 to 2020, there was about a 72% change in mining, in terms of the land converted. If you look from 2020 to 2022, it was about 135% increase,” Dr. Kofi Asare said.

The Western, Western North, Eastern, and Central Regions are all facing aggressive expansion of mining activities.

It's not just forests. Ghana's rivers, once sources of clean water, have turned brown with sediment and toxic waste.

The Space Science Institute has now developed a way to track these changes remotely.

“We also monitor our water bodies a lot, measuring turbidity. Turbidity can be measured on the ground. Turbidity can be measured with a satellite, NDTI.

"So what happens is, we take the ground data, we take the satellite data, then we validate. We try to compare. Once the model works, you can extend it to other areas where you don't have access.

"So instead of touring the whole riverbank, you can just take a satellite image of a wide area, and then you can still estimate the turbidity. And that is the water quality,” Dr Joseph Bremang Tandoh

Ghana's scientists are not just tracking deforestation. They are also working on applications that can estimate farm yields, helping to predict food production and ensure food security.

“Currently, we have an algorithm. The accuracy, we are running around 60-70, 65-70 percent. So you can run, take satellite images of the farms of the northern region.

Then you can classify, okay, these are where the maize farms are. By measuring their chlorophyll index and measuring their soil moisture, and other parameters, and their leaf area index, you can estimate the yield of the farm,” said Dr Joseph Bremang Tandoh

Despite their groundbreaking work, Ghana's space scientists are facing serious threats, especially from land encroachment.

The Ghana Radio Astronomy Observatory, a key research facility, has lost most of its land.

“The initial land was 165 acres. It came to 75. Now we have fewer than 30. And this whole facility is more than $12-15 million going.

"From 2012 to this time. In the whole of Africa, Ghana is the second country to have a radio telescope,” said Dr Proven Adzri Emmanuel.

“What the people around are doing is that they are producing RFI, or radio frequency interference. And that is affecting our data. That is the background noise that is coming from around us.” – Dr. Proven Adzri Emmanuel

“This is our project site. And one of the challenges that we are facing is the heavy encroachment. And not only that, it is affecting the science that we are doing,” said Dr Theophilus Ansah Narh.

Ghana's space scientists believe the country must take its space program more seriously. While other African nations are launching satellites, Ghana currently has none in orbit.

“We need to own our own satellite. We need to build our own satellite. Owned by Ghanaians, built by Ghanaians.

"When you take our brothers, Nigeria. Nigeria has about 7 satellites. When you take South Africa, they are big brothers. They have launched almost 13 satellites.

"Egypt and Rwanda have also launched a lot of satellites. Angola launched a communication satellite from which they are reaping. When you come to Ghana, as we speak, as I said before, we don't have any satellites in orbit,” said Dr Joseph Bremang Tando