The Bono Region, one of the food baskets of the country, is gradually losing its natural resources, mainly fertile land, plantations and rivers to activities of illegal mining popularly known as “galamsey.”
The fast spreading of galamsey activities in the region is threatening food production because tracts of land suitable for agriculture have been destroyed in search for gold.
A visit to Nipanikrom, Surubokrom, Operator, near Bandaboase in the Banda District and Branam in the Wenchi Municipality, has exposed how the galamseyers have destroyed farmlands, water bodies and forest reserves with impunity.
Havoc
When galamsey is mentioned in the country, attention is shifted to other parts of the country such as Ashanti, Western, Central and the Eastern regions.
However, what remains unknown to many Ghanaians is that the Bono Region is actively involved in the menace, wreaking havoc on fertile land, rivers and forest reserves.
Further, the illegal miners have drilled boreholes at places where there are no rivers to facilitate their operations.
They have also installed solar panels and stationed generators to supply them with power to operate even deep in the night.
Some of the illegal miners have permanently settled in the deep forest to facilitate their daily illegal activities.
The ‘galamseyers’ have encroached on parts of the concession of the King Award Ghana Limited, a mining company currently undertaking exploration in the area.
Operations of some of the illegal miners which are close to the edges of roads are gradually eating up those roads.
Excavators
At the time of the visit, there were several illegal miners busily digging for gold, using excavators, changfangs, pumping machines and other equipment.
The Daily Graphicgathered from the communities that some cashew farmers were selling out their cashew farms to the galamsey operators to mine.
The source said with as little as GH¢1,000, a ‘galamseyer’ could purchase one acre of cashew plantation to mine.
The region is likely to lose its enviable name as “food basket”, if measures are not put in place to halt the activities of illegal miners immediately.
Bono Regional Minister
The Bono Regional Minister, Joseph Addae Akwaboa, who led members of the Regional Security Council (REGSEC) to some of the sites, expressed shock and dismay about the level of destruction caused by the illegal miners in the region.
“I’m so shocked to the extent that I don’t know how to describe these galamsey activities in the region at the moment.
“If you stay in Accra or Sunyani, you will think there are no galamsey activities in the region, but today I have realized that it’s happening quietly deep in the forests,” he said.
Mr Akwaboa said “If we don’t act fast to halt these activities now, then the region is doomed,” explaining that “a time will come when we won’t get water and food to drink and eat respectively.”
He said the REGSEC had put in place advanced strategies to combat the illegal mining in the region.
“The fight against galamsey will not be easy, but we will fight and win the battle,”
he said.
Bui Dam
Mr Akwaboa said if action was not taken to halt operations of these illegal miners, their activities could endanger the Bui Dam and the Bui Power Authority’s
(BPA) installations.
He said the REGSEC would soon take serious action against these illegal miners to protect the Bui Dam and BPA installations.
Mr Akwaboa said the team had identified all galamsey-prone areas in the region, explaining that the team would go after operators in their hiding places.
He cautioned the Chinese and the Ghanaian nationals engaged in the activities to leave all galamsey sites with immediate effect.
“As far as I remain in office as the Bono Regional Minister, I will combat this illegal mining. I am not going to allow them to operate in this region,” he said.
Arrest chiefs
Mr Akwaboa also vowed to arrest and prosecute traditional leaders who have released lands or played any role in illegal mining in the region.
“I am sending this warning to all chiefs in the region. If I get any chief involved in illegal mining, I will arrest and prosecute that chief, so stop releasing lands to illegal miners,” he said.
Mr Akwaboa said the REGSEC had picked intelligence that some chiefs had released lands to the illegal miners, explaining that they had identified all the chiefs and “very soon, we will go after them”.
“If you are a chief and you know you have released land to galamseyers, please drive them out of the land, else we will come after you,” he warned.
Mr Akwaboa said he would put politics aside in the fight against galamsey and warned those involved in galamsey to stop their operations.
He advised cashew farmers to stop selling their cashew farms to galamseyers, because the government would soon roll out interventions to make the cashew industry lucrative.
Mining exploration
The Public Relations Officer (PRO) of King Award Ghana Limited, Alex Twumasi, said the company secured the exploration licence in 2021.
He said the operations of the illegal miners had affected their exploration activities.
Mr Twumasi explained that the galamseyers at Operator, part of the company’s concession, had lived in the area for more than 30 years.
He, however, explained that the destruction worsened when the illegal miners started introducing excavators and other heavy machines.
Mr Twumasi again said several galamseyers who were operating in the Ashanti, Eastern and Central regions had moved to the area because of the constant
operations of the anti-galamsey taskforce in those regions.
“After realising that there is peace in this area, most of them moved into the region to continue their operations.
This has worsened the destruction within a few years,” he said.
No jobs
A 32-year-old illegal miner at Surubokrom, Zakaria Seidu, told the Daily Graphicthat the lack of jobs had forced some of them to engage in illegal mining.
He said he owned some changfangs and had been renting them to other illegal miners daily.
Seidu, who tried to justify their operations, claimed that illegal miners who used changfangs did not cause any destruction to the environment, including water bodies.
He said it was only those using excavators who were destroying forest reserves and the water bodies.
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