It is extremely gratifying to see the number of organisations and individuals that have, of late, been calling on our Government to declare “a state of emergency” to take the struggle against galamsey to a new, higher level.
It is a courageous demand, because some of them – especially those with long memories – must be aware that a “state of emergency” can cause enormous disruption to normal life in the country.
For instance, the orders that accompany a state of emergency usually include the imposition of a “curfew”.
Now, under a curfew, people may not be allowed outside their homes during certain hours. This, of course, causes tremendous, annoying challenges to traders (in particular) and commercial life in general.
Some people are inevitably driven to bankruptcy. In a country with very little support for the socially deprived, this can create “unwilling criminals”, as people seek new ways of surviving at all costs.
In addition, the enforcement of curfews is entrusted to uniformed officials, some of whom may not be all that efficient or incorruptible. Given the fact that excavators, bulldozers and chanfans can be driven on loaders along our roads all the way from Accra/Tema to be used to destroy rivers in remote locations in our deep forests (despite the existence of numerous police checkpoints on our roads) we would be stupid to discount the “human element” in the enforcement of curfew regulations.
Furthermore, terrible motor accidents can occur if a driver resorts to over-speeding whilst trying to reach home before the curfew comes into force. In other words, “unexpected consequences” form a natural part of the state of emergency process.
That rational people familiar with all the factors outlined above are nevertheless demanding that a state of emergency be declared, is an eloquent indication that disillusionment with the “efforts”of our governments to tackle the galamsey disaster has reached a critical point.
We have watched as the military and the police have been tasked to mount “Operation” this and “Operation” that. We have seen “Task Force A” and “Task Force B” formed and then subsequently suspended, to be replaced with Combined Group “F” and Combined Group “G”. But galamsey goes on.
People have been sent to the Tarkwa School of Mines, at Government expense, to be taught by experts what safe and acceptable mining techniques are, and what causes destruction of the environment. Such nice-sounding nomenclatures as “community-stroke responsible mining” have been coined to disguise and camouflage galamsey. But its results cannot be hidden: yawning craters that devour innocent farmers and members of their families (including young children) when they visit their farms.
No matter what the Government and its agencies try, then galamseyers are always one step ahead of authority. Licences issued for “prospecting’ are impudently turned into licences for actual mining. It is obvious that there is big money behind the galamseyers caught on riverbanks killing water-bodies with excavators and bulldozers, mercury and cyanide are not doing anything on a “small scale”. Yet their propaganda unrelentingly describes what they do as “small-scale mining”. What is “small-scale” about raising money to buy and operate excavators that cost scores of thousands of Cedis and require teams of strong men– some armed with pump-action rifles – to put them to work?
The “small-scale mining” scenario is false and hypocritical, especially in these days when the international gold price has risen steeply. Money builds empires, and if we are not careful, the enclaves of galamsey “townships” that brave journalists have already discovered, despite the danger to their lives, will become veritable centres of armed might, every bit as impenetrable as the terrorist havens that exist in some of the countries that surround us.
Big money is required to hire the trucks that drive the machines to the “operational site. The fuel stations that are either built on site and supplied from outside; or which depend on tankers that are refilled at odd, irregular hours, when no-one can be present to raise an eyebrow. It is a huge operation to run a whole township in the middle of nowhere. Now, they are doing it to acquire gold. But What happens when they decide to apply their organisational skills to grabbing political power?
The danger of that is real enough – again we must learn from our neighbouring countries. In subsequent editorials, we shall examine the methodologies whereby our Government can mobilise our entire population to help maintain our precious -peace and simultaneously halt the galamsey menace that can inexorably condemn our offsprings to a life lived with thirst and water-borne diseases, because their parents allowed our water-bodies to be destroyed by gold-seeking brutes, posing as legitimate entrepreneurs.
