Renowned Ghanaian architect and Pan-Africanist, Prof. John Owusu Addo, has bemoaned the persistent devastation caused by illegal mining popularly known as galamsey, lamenting the lack of political will to combat the menace.

Speaking on The Sages on JoyNews, the renowned architect said, despite how glaring and destructive the situation is, successive governments have failed to demonstrate the commitment needed to bring it to an end.

“When you sit down, it’s so easy to find a way out to stop galamsey. But nobody has the political will to do it. And you have these present two parties—can exchange, you know, go on for another five times and then galamsey will still go on because nobody has the political will to do it,” he said.

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Prof. Owusu Addo did not mince words about the urgency of the crisis, warning that continued inaction could lead to irreversible ecological damage. He emphasized that education alone cannot solve the crisis, especially in the face of worsening water pollution and environmental degradation.

“We can go on educating for the next 20 years. But maybe in the next 20 years, there’ll be no rivers except maybe the Volta. As far as the Brim, Ankobra and Pra rivers are concerned, I think it’s only the Densu that doesn’t have gold,” he warned.

To Prof. Owusu Addo, the future of Ghana’s water bodies is precariously hanging in the balance, threatened by the indecision of politicians who have treated the issue with levity.

“It’s in the hands of the politicians who don’t have a political will to stop it. It’s very, very unfortunate. And we’ll get up, or they will get up maybe in the next 10 to 20 years, and find the riverbeds have all dried up.”

Ghana’s fight against galamsey has seen a mix of military interventions, public campaigns, and policy pronouncements.

However, critics, including Prof. Owusu Addo, argue that these measures lack consistency and bite often falling victim to partisan politics and vested interests.