Galamsey takes over homes in Elubo

There is looming danger in Elubo in the Western North Region as illegal mining activities have taken over the entire town, including homes.

A report filed by Despite Media’s Seth Mantey has captured the devastating impact of illegal miners who have now entered the Elubo township after ransacking its forest for gold.

Video of the town captured in the report shows the entire township inundated by several pits of varying lengths and depths.

Some pits in the video are dug right in front of some homes.

According to the reporter, the situation has heightened the concerns of residents in the town owing to the dangers of the pits being dug in their homes.

The video showed evidence of cracks on several buildings resulting from the vibrations of the machinery used by the miners.

According to residents, they cannot do much about the current situation which is being perpetuated with the tacit approval of some chiefs.

The report is yet another evidence of the ever-growing impact of galamsey activities on various communities across the country.

Professor Gladys Nyarko Ansah of the University of Ghana, in a recent interview on Joynewsfile, shared findings of research being undertaken in collaboration with the University of York in Cananda.

According to her, illegal mining activities remain a threat to some communities in the Atewa West area of the Eastern Region, where farmers now have to buy purified water to spray their farms.
“It is very sad; farmers have to buy pure water to go and mix chemicals, weedicides and things to spray their farms.

“Atiwa West, that is where we worked. They have to buy pure water not just to drink, but so they can mix agrochemicals to spray their farms; pesticides and so on and so forth. So then farming becomes unattractive, and in a country where you have a large number of young people who are unemployed, and they can’t even see farming as an alternative, they just jump on the galamsey bandwagon, and it becomes difficult to control anybody and anything,” she said.

She has therefore called for a committed fight against illegal mining activities that goes beyond rhetoric.

“So let us mean what we say. If we don’t mean to do them, let’s keep quiet about it and let’s stop spending so much money. But if we really mean to do it, then let us do it the way we know we ought to do it,” the researcher said.

The discussion on the impact of illegal mining is in the wake of the arrest of a notorious Chinese galamsey kingpin who has been rearrested in Ghana after being deported from the country in 2018.

The arrest of Aisha Huang has ignited talks about illegal mining and its detrimental effects on the country’s natural resources such as forest and water reserves.

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She has therefore called on the state to show actual commitment in the fight against galamsey.