Concerns continue to be raised about the government of Ghana’s commitment in protecting the environment and securing it for future generations.
These concerns are exacerbated by the continuing pollution of the environment, especially through illegal mining, popularly called “galamsey” in Ghana.
The Eastern Region, Ashanti Region, Western Region, Western-North Region and the Ahafo Region and among the areas where illegal mining is pervasively endemic such that it is no longer done in secret but in a broad day light.
Some concerned citizens are doubtful about the government’s ability to nib this canker in the bud, considering the open secret that some powerful elements within the corridors of power are deeply involved in this illegality and are bent on continuing their work with impunity.
They wonder why illegal mining takes place along major highways such as the Accra-Kumasi road and Kumasi-Cape Coast road and many other major roads and yet nobody cares to bring the perpetrators to book.
“It’s a shame that after almost seven decades of independence, we have destroyed our environment to this level. We have succeeded in polluting our water bodies, destroying our cocoa farms and degrading the very environment we live in in such a manner”, David Owusu-Ansah, a Public Servant lamented.
He told rbnewshub.com that it is a failure on the part of successive governments and the citizenry in general to bring the situation under control and wondered if anything positive will come out of the current efforts by the government to deal with the issue.
“The most dangerous aspect of the issue is that this illegality has damning health implications for everyone in the country. This is because some of the chemicals being used by these guys are extremely injurious to the health of humans and yet nobody appears to stop them from perpetrating this criminality.
Another concerned citizen, who pleaded to speak on conditions of anonymity, blamed the country’s security system for this menace.
“Can you convince me that our Policemen and our soldiers are not aware of the locations of these galamsey operations? Are they not aware? So, what are they doing about it?” he quizzed.
He further argued that if urgent steps are not taken by the government to halt this activity, “we will all live to regret one day.”
Credit: rbnewshub.com Email: rbnewsh@gmail.com
