The Ghana Center for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana) has raised alarm over the growing normalization of illegal mining, popularly known as galamsey, within local communities, warning that the practice has evolved into a socially accepted enterprise.
Speaking on Morning Starr with Naa Dedei Tettey on Tuesday, October 7, Programme Manager for Security Sector Governance at CDD-Ghana, Paul Nana Kwabena Aborampah Mensah, said the once-condemned activity has now become a livelihood source embraced by residents, traditional authorities, and even some local officials.
According to him, community members who once appealed for government intervention against galamsey now actively participate in or benefit from it.
“People don’t appreciate the situation when they are discussing from outside. The collaboration, the coordination, the support has gone through several transitions. Now, you realise first the community people were themselves complaining about the extraction of their farms.
You realise the pastors, the imams, the people in the communities were all supporting the national action. But now you see a transition, you see a transition that people residing outside the communities are crying more than the people in the communities because now it has gotten to a point that it has become a wholesale venture. So the people who were previously crying, calling for state support are now immersed in the stands,” he said.
He added that the practice has now extended to “The traditional authorities, the elected assembly members, the youth, the education, everybody. The police officers who have stayed in some districts for quite a long time, so many people,” noting that galamsey has become “a source of their bread.”
Mr. Mensah cautioned that with entire communities now complicit, the moral foundation for combating illegal mining has been eroded.
He reiterated his call for a deliberate ruthless military-backed enforcement to address the menace.
Source: Starrfm.com.gh
