Introduction
When the Ghana Water Company shut
down the Kwanyako Dam, over ten districts in the Central Region were left
without water. The closure was triggered by severe pollution from illegal
mining upstream, which caused excessive silt and turbidity in the Ayensu River.
Families queued with buckets, schools struggled, hospitals faced crises, and
livelihoods were disrupted as communities scrambled for safe water. This crisis
underscores the urgent need to enforce environmental laws against illegal
mining and protect vital water sources.
This was no accident. It was the
bitter fruit of galamsey. When a nation’s children cannot drink from its
rivers, when communities are robbed of water, the most basic gift of life, we
face not just an environmental disaster but a moral and spiritual collapse.
“The earth is the Lord’s, and the
fullness thereof” (Psalm 24:1). We are tenants, not owners. Galamsey is not
only illegality; it is sin, an assault on creation, on neighbour, and on the
future.
Creation Betrayed
From the beginning, Scripture
charged humanity to “till and keep” the earth (Genesis 2:15). To keep is to
guard, not to plunder. To poison rivers with mercury and arsenic, to strip
forests bare, is to break covenant with God.
Christ commands us to love our
neighbour as ourselves (Mark 12:31). What love is this that leaves poisoned
water for children? What neighbourliness destroys the farmland that feeds us?
Galamsey violates both law and gospel.
The True Cost of Silence
The destruction is already upon us:
- Health: mercury poisoning,
kidney and liver disease, unsafe drinking water.
- Livelihoods: farmers lose
fertile land, fishermen lose rivers, children abandon school for pits.
- Economy: Ghana spends
millions treating polluted water while our international reputation
suffers.
Galamsey does not enrich us. It
robs us of our inheritance and mortgages our children’s future.
Justice With Mercy
The gospel demands both justice and
grace. Justice must reach those who finance and protect galamsey, powerful
figures who escape while the poor are punished. Yet mercy must be shown to
those driven by poverty. They need alternatives: skills training, decent jobs,
rehabilitation, and hope. And restoration must follow. Healing degraded lands,
replanting forests, and purifying rivers is as urgent as punishment. Without
restoration, justice is incomplete.
Law, Complicity, and the Bishops’
Alarm
Ghana is not without laws. The
Minerals and Mining Act (2006, amended 2019), forestry regulations, and our
Constitution (Articles 257 and 269) empower the State to protect natural
resources. The failure lies not in the law, but in its enforcement.
Our contradiction is glaring.
According to JoyNews research, using data from the Observatory of Economic
Complexity, Ghana was the highest importer of excavators in West Africa, and
the second highest in Africa, in 2023, spending around US$205 million. In 2024,
the Lands and Natural Resources Minister revealed that Ghana imported
excavators worth GH¢6.2 billion, placing them among the country’s top three
imports by value.
What message do we send when we
condemn galamsey but flood our markets with the very machines that fuel it?
Excavators do not appear by accident. They are cleared at our ports, driven on
our roads, and ferried into forest reserves. This is not ignorance. It is
complicity.
It is in this light that the Ghana
Catholic Bishops’ Conference (GCBC) has described illegal mining as a “cancer
in our national soul.” The GCBC has urged government to declare a state of
emergency in mining zones and around endangered water bodies, warning that
galamsey “ravages our rivers and forests, poisons our soil, endangers public
health, corrupts governance, erodes our moral fibre, and extinguishes
livelihoods.”
Is such a call legitimate?
Article 31 of the 1992 Constitution
empowers the President to declare a state of emergency in cases of:
·
Natural
disaster or calamity,
·
Imminent
danger to public safety or order, or
·
A
breakdown in essential services.
By these criteria, the Bishops’
call has constitutional grounding. Galamsey has already caused calamity by
polluting rivers and destroying farmlands, endangered public safety through
poisoned water and collapsed pits, and triggered a breakdown in essential
services, most notably the Kwanyako Dam shutdown.
Caution, however, is essential. A
state of emergency hands the government extraordinary powers, and history shows
how easily those can be abused. In Ghana, these powers rest mainly with the
President, who can issue executive instruments, restrict rights, and deploy
security forces. Parliament must approve the declaration within 72 hours, and
emergency powers are limited to three months at a time. Ministers may be
delegated authority, while the judiciary retains oversight and core rights
remain protected.
Without these checks, such powers
can be twisted to suppress dissent or entrench control. Used responsibly, a
state of emergency could help tackle galamsey.
A Prophetic Witness
We cannot ignore the tireless work
of journalists like Erastus Asare Donkor, who force us to see poisoned
rivers and broken communities. His reporting is prophetic, holding a mirror to
our national conscience.
But it is not enough to watch and
weep. Action is required:
- Enforce
mining laws without fear or favour.
- Ban
mining in river bodies and forest reserves, no exceptions.
- Provide
urgent livelihood alternatives for at-risk communities.
- Restore
degraded lands and rivers.
- Demand
transparency and accountability from public officials.
- Mobilise
the Church and civil society to preach creation care as moral duty.
Conclusion
Galamsey is slow violence against
God’s creation and Ghana’s children. It is a sin that poisons both our rivers
and our conscience.
We cannot claim to love God while
destroying His earth. We cannot claim patriotism while betraying our future.
To remain silent is to be
complicit.