Professor Chris Gordon has issued a dire warning regarding the impact of illegal mining, or galamsey, on Ghana’s landscape and natural resources.
Speaking at the 2024 Achimota Speaks lecture on the theme “Ghana’s Death by Galamsey: Who Will Bell the Cat?” held in Accra on Wednesday, November 13, 2024, Prof. Gordon explained how illegal mining has not only ravaged forests and water bodies but is also causing Ghana’s land mass to erode into the sea.
Prof. Gordon highlighted the severe toll galamsey is taking on Ghana’s environment, noting that massive quantities of soil are being lost each year as a result of mining activities along major rivers.
This loss, he explained, is equivalent to more than 12-tonne tipper trucks of soil being carried away each year.
“Ghana as a nation is disappearing because of galamsey being washed out to the sea. I did a calculation using the rivers Bia, Tano, and Ankobra and about 2 million tonnes of Ghana’s soil to go to the sea.
“The total is equivalent to more than 200,000, 12-tonne tipper trucks each year, every year. If you have a line of tipper trucks from Bawku to Accra, you will need two lanes to have that number of trucks. Just imagine them all coming out and dumping Ghana into the sea to be washed away. It all ends up in the Niger Delta. We are losing Ghana in building Nigeria,” he stated.
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