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NEWS COMMENTARY ON ILLEGAL MINING

                                    
Twenty years since the legalisation of small-scale mining in Ghana, illegal mining has succeeded in positioning itself as one of the worst threats to the country. The passage of PNDC Law 218 to  check  illegal mining has not yielded any positive results making many wonder if we are serious as a country. Research indicates that less than 30 percent of miners operate legally. A visit to mining communities across the country particularly the Eastern, Western, Ashanti and Brong Ahafo Regions reveal a picture that can sadly be described as hopeless. Open pits besieged by young men and women digging for gold without care of the dangers being created to the environment, posed to themselves, the larger community and worse of it all the health of the inhabitants. As if this is not enough, the Chinese are invading the mining communities with sophisticated equipment thereby destroying the environment even faster. The sad aspect of this is that some of these Chinese are heavily armed even with guns and ready to fiercely resist any attempt to prevent their activities. This is happening in the midst of laws coherently codified and well printed in our statute books indicating that small-scale mining is a preserve for Ghanaians alone. Today illegal mining has grown beyond a mining problem to become a national security and  environmental issue.  A dozen of  the Chinese openly use excavators, move into a community and before one realises it, wreck farmlands and turn local streams into mud puddles. The question is what is so special about illegal mining that Ghana as a sovereign nation cannot control? On the 30th of September this year the Chinese Embassy in Ghana posted on its website that 38 illegal Chinese miners have been deported a month earlier. What do we see today? Many more Chinese are on the ground mining illegally with impunity. In August this year, 20 Chinese were arrested for operating without residential and work permit following  the setting up of a committee by the IGP, the Ministry of Natural Resources and the Minerals Commission. Ghanaians  were told that the suspects will be tried soon, but only God knows what has since happened. It is true that bilateral trade between Ghana and China has been of immense benefit to Ghana but that cannot and must not be a compensatory excuse for foreigners to destroy our lands and take away our natural resources. People  living in mining communities must rise and say no to illegal mining else they will be the first to suffer any calamity as a result. Whether traditional rulers, politicians or so called  big wigs are involved or not should not be an excuse. What is wrong is wrong and must be treated as such. As we celebrate Christmas, let us remember the love God showed us by bringing his only son Jesus to die for  us. This love must be extended by us to the environment. Let us be reminded that if we allow our environment to be destroyed through illegal mining, posterity will not forgive us. Merry Christmas to all Ghanaians.
BY GEORGE ASEKERE