Member of Parliament’s mines and energy committee, Edward Bawa, has revealed that laws in the country that are supposed to ensure that mining is done in a sustainable and environmentally-friendly manner is compromised.

According to him, until government addresses the “political drivers” that are associated with the menace of illegal mining menace, the problem will not be solved. He indicated that the network of political actors is so huge and there are also“electioneering promises and activities that seem to bolster” these illegal miners and embolden them to work.

“What happens is that these two factors conspire to ensure that the laws that are supposed to be enforced in ensuring that mining is done in a sustainable and environmentally-friendly manner is compromised. You know because [in] this country, our political activities have become so partisan that usually you have a situation where when you have these activities going on; you can have the opposition party seeming to be able to tell these illegal miners that when they come they will do something different to ensure that they continue with their business.”
Edward Bawa

Mr Bawa noted that the partisan nature in the country’s political terrain makes it impossible to tackle galamsey head-on. He explained that the “opposition party think that will put the ruling government in a disadvantaged” position of which they can gain political advantage when they take the side of illegal miners.

Commenting on whether government has been able to make strides in tackling illegal mining, Mr Bawa highlighted that the most significant policy challenge that faces Ghana today is how as a country, leaders will be able to harness the benefits of artisanal and small scale mining. He further noted that this must be undertaken with efforts of minimizing the negative effects that is associated with galamsey.

Challenges in addressing illegal mining

Parliament’s mines and energy committee member explained that documents from minerals commission and other research works seems to suggest that small-scale mining contributes “about 60% of the labour force” in the sector which translates to over a million people engaged in either direct or indirect activities associated with small scale mining.

“The latest figures that came out from the minerals commission, suggests that in terms of total output, they contributed about 34% of the gold output that we get in this country. However, sadly, for all these operators within the small scale mining, about 85% of them are illegal.”
Edward Bawa

Mr Bawa emphasized that although governments over the years have tried as much as possible to see how they can work and ensure that they regularize activities of small scale mining, all those efforts have failed. The challenge, he explained, is because government seem to be approaching the menace of galamsey from a purely technical and economic perspective.

“We are made to understand that one of the reasons why you see people going into illegal mining is the complex nature of licensing. We are also made to understand that because communities, particularly rural communities are displaced by large scale miners, that’s the multinational companies, it renders them poor and unemployed… Because of that, we have always tried as much as possible to see how we can resolve that.”
Edward Bawa

Over the period, Mr Bawa revealed that governments have tried decentralizing the licensing procedure, to make mining more viable, albeit it hasn’t worked. He noted that government has equally requested multinational companies to “cede out or demarcate portions of their concessions” for small scale miners to trade with. By doing this, he expressed that it will offer miners some work all with the hope of reducing rural poverty and engaging people in employment, a move which he sadly stated hasn’t worked.