Minority Leader Alexander Afenyo-Markin has drawn a stark contrast between concerns over alleged financial discrepancies at the Gold Board and the health toll of illegal mining on communities across Ghana.

Speaking during Parliament’s emergency sitting, Mr Afenyo-Markin said residents of mining communities were paying a devastating price for the extensive pollution caused by illegal mining, popularly known as galamsey.

“As we speak, Ghanaians in mining communities across this country continue to suffer kidney failure, lung failure, and other grave conditions at alarming rates because of the extensive pollution that illegal mining has visited upon our water bodies and our air,” he said on Monday, August 24.

“This has become nothing short of a widespread epidemic, one this government appears to have neither the clue nor the courage to confront.”

The Minority Leader said the situation demanded urgent attention, particularly as concerns persisted over the Gold Board’s ability to account for 1.7 billion, which he said was equivalent to about GH¢22 billion.

“So while Gold Board cannot account for 1.7 billion, an equivalent of 22 billion Ghanaian cedis, Ghanaians in our mining communities are paying with their kidneys, their lungs, and in other cases their lives,” he said.

“This House owes them an answer too.”

Mr Afenyo-Markin made the remarks shortly after Speaker Alban Bagbin addressed the House on the business for which Parliament had been recalled.

The Speaker had urged Members to restrict proceedings to the matters outlined in the notice of recall, including the consideration of nominations to the Supreme Court, ministerial nominees and the Banks and Specialised Deposit-Taking Institutions Amendment Bill.