Deputy National Director of A Rocha Ghana, Daryl Bosu, has bemoaned the country’s inability to put in place sufficient measures to effectively address the issue of galamsey—illegal small-scale mining. 

Speaking on the Joy News AM show, he stated that we have not put in place sufficient measures to effectively address the issues of galamsey. 

Mr. Bosu spoke about how they conducted an activity to identify the causes of galamsey. 

“Now, let us take a look at how, in the year 2021, we practically went round the whole country, organised dialogues—10 different dialogues—and the issues were put on the table to determine what was really responsible for galamsey,” he said. 

He spoke about what they all identified as the cause of galamsey and made mention of all of them 

“We identified the fact that, yes, there is an issue of livelihood, there is also an issue of the licensing regime that is not really done well, there is also an issue of not ensuring sufficient due diligence when it comes to granting mining concessions, and there is also an issue of political exposure, where those at the top try to interfere and control the work of people who are supposed to be regulating the mining industry,” he said. 

The outcome of the activity was just read out to the public and was never worked upon and the solutions and recommendation was just abandoned according to Mr. Bosu 

“All of these were identified, but we took those documents, read out all of these issues in the communique, and we never went to the ground to really work with the recommendations and solutions that came forward,” he said. 

He explained how we are facing the same issues after five years and the need for us to act and his fear of the future of the country in the10 years to come  

“Now, we have come full circle. We are another five years down the line, and the issues are still confronting us. We find ourselves in a situation where, if we do not take steps to deal with the problem now, I am afraid of what will happen to Ghana in the next 10 years. When all our water bodies are destroyed or contaminated with heavy metals, our lands are no longer wholesome enough to produce food for us to eat, and even when you go to the hospital, you are dying slowly because of heavy metal contamination." he said 

He spoke about how the problem is not deal with head on and referred to ostriches' behavior as the approach to the problem 

“There is a problem we need to deal with, but somehow, we are pretending like ostriches, putting our heads in the sand and refusing to deal with it.” he concluded.