A Microbial Ecologist and Social Activist, Sulemana Issifu has expressed deep concern over the persistent illegal mining activities in the country.
Speaking on JoyNews’ Newsfile ChangeSpeakers Series IV on Saturday, December 16, he underscored that the inability to curtail ‘galamsey’ is pushing Ghana’s ecosystem perilously close to a tipping point.
According to Mr Issifu, the unchecked continuation of ‘galamsey’ poses a significant threat to biodiversity.
He warned that if these illegal mining activities persist, Ghana runs the risk of crossing the ecosystem tipping point, resulting in the loss of crucial biodiversity.
“These biodiversities are important because if you take our agricultural system, some micro-organisms are responsible for plants to be able to take up nutrients and once you disturb the ecosystem, you lose these micro-organisms and the effect is that we are going to see crop epidemics, then this will threaten food security system and make agricultural very expensive to undertake.
“So when you have galamsey going on, I will not be surprised that in the next few years, our plants are going to die, and we will not be able to survive in the ecosystem because it has been disturbed and our important micro-organisms and biological organisms that sustain the plant life which in turns sustain the human life are going to be lost,” he said.
The environmental activist cautioned against the potential loss of the water purification function within the ecosystem.
He warned that if the current trajectory continues, Ghana could face a severe shortage of drinkable water within the next two decades, both on the surface and underground.
“When the ecosystem crosses the tipping point, you are unable to reverse it and even if you want to reverse it, it will take extreme effort. Why would we have to wait to struggle and spend meager and scarce resources of the state to be able to reverse something that we should be able to stop it now,” Mr Issifu said.
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