Galamsey: River Ankobra worse than before as illegal miners return with full force.

The fight against galamsey is proving to be far from success as illegal mining operators are beginning to troop back to some of the major illegal mining sites.

Armed with Chan fa machines, dozens of illegal miners have for example returned to River Ankobra, causing serious pollutions as they hunt for one of the world’s most valuable metals.

Months ago, hundreds of these unscrupulous citizens were driven away by the military. In addition, hundreds of mining equipments including excavators were destroyed. This was done with the aim of making it difficult, if not impossible for the miners to return to site following the departure of the military. Even with that, there were reports of some of the illegal miners engaging in their nefarous activities at nights.

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As the fight appears to be slowing by the day, the illegal mining activities on the other hand, are also returning to normal. It is obvious that if care is not taken, all the investments made so far will amount to an exercise in futility.

It is worthy to note that the emerging development brings to bare the weaknesses of the approach adopted in the fight against this devastating environmental problem. Some of these weaknesses include inadequate grassroot participation and lack of proper and effective exit strategy.

The fight against galamsey has been highly centralised. The planning is done at the national level with insignificant or no involvement of the local communities. Also, the implementation of the strategy against these illegal mining activities are mostly being carried out by state officials. The effect is that, indigenous knowledge that could be useful in ensuring the sustainability of the fight is left unutilized.