The Asantehene touched on this while speaking about issues regarding illegal small-scale mining which is destroying many waterbodies nationwide.
According to him, he finds it rather disturbing that the phenomenon persists despite the many efforts and pledges by government to put an end to or reduce significantly, the menace that appears to be worsening.
Speaking during a visit by the U.S Ambassador to Ghana, Virginia Palmer, on Friday September 30, 2022, he raised concerns about the recent development regarding the reappearance of galamsey Kingpin, Aisha Huang after previous efforts to get her out of the country following her destructive galamsey activities.
“If we create a system where we say we will stop it, to the extent that the president says that I put my presidency on the line and yet it is going on, then to me something is wrong somewhere.
"So we need to ask why this is happening, polluting our waters, and case in point is that I come back and hear that a Chinese woman who is supposedly deported is back in the country also doing galamsey again,” he added.
The problem he noted, lies within the powers that are manipulating people to engage in galamsey activities on their behalf and the authorities who are benefitting from proceeds of galamsey and are therefore shedding the responsibility of exposing the faces behind the activity.
“The question is that, who is in control of the security around that area. From the district level to the highest level, we are all talking about galamsey, the government set up the military cum police to do it, why have we not been able to stop it?
“Is it that our borders are porous? Or what? So what happened? And people know people who are doing the galamsey, they know people who are working in the communities for those people”.
“Unfortunately, unemployment may be the problem, fine but that is not to say that we have to destroy the environment but to me, why can’t galamsey be stopped because I’m sure people are involved that they know some authorities somewhere but I don’t think that should be the case,” he added.
Comparing methods used in the past for extracting gold in the past to the present situation where equipment being used are polluting the waters, he said,
“When it comes to galamsey, Ghana was known as the Gold Coast so it was known but during that time, it wasn’t like the galamsey that we are talking about. Menial ones, people were doing, hundreds and hundreds of years ago, it was there but unfortunately, now people are using equipment that is destroying the water and they don’t care about the environment or anything”.
This won't be the first time the Asantehene has spoken about issues regarding galamsey. In time past, he has warned chiefs against engaging in the illegal activities while calling on pepetrators to put a stop to same.
Meanwhile, US Ambassador, Virginia on her part expressed optimism about cooperation with the US to fight galamsey in the region.
"We look forward to being able to discuss the development within the region and how the United States might cooperate with that and to get the Asantehene’s insight into the chieftaincy dispute nationwide and how they might be a source of conflict and if there are solutions to that. I’m also very interested because it’s very important to the economy of the region in the role of galamsey. I know that it is something that the Asantehene is interested in working to address," she said.
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