Illegal mining activities have encroached dangerously close to the Kyebi office of environmental NGO A Rocha Ghana in the Abuakwa South Municipality of the Eastern Region, destroying more than 50 acres of land and placing nearby buildings at risk of collapse.
The illegal operations, involving more than 70 miners and at least five excavators, have transformed the area behind the organisation’s office into an active galamsey zone operating around the clock.
The destruction has left parts of the land around the office severely degraded, with deep pits, loose earth and damaged vegetation threatening the structural safety of nearby buildings, including private homes.
Residents and observers say the continuous operations have also created unbearable noise, dust pollution and environmental destruction in the area.
The scale of devastation shocked a visiting European Union delegation led by Rune Skinnebach, who toured some of the illegal mining sites in Kyebi with journalists and police personnel as part of an assessment of environmental governance challenges linked to galamsey.
“So, before coming here to this forest in the Kyebi area, I’d heard a lot about galamsey. Today we have visited a couple of sites, we’ve seen what it does to nature,” Ambassador Skinnebach said.
“We have started to understand the complexities of the galamsey file,” he added.
The EU Ambassador pointed to weak enforcement and governance challenges as key drivers of the growing crisis.
“We know that there are problems with enforcing also this framework which has been laid down, and today we have seen or partly understood why,” he noted.
According to him, the environmental impact of illegal mining is becoming increasingly alarming across the country, particularly on Ghana’s water bodies.
“We know that it’s polluting the water bodies. Sixty-five percent of the water bodies in Ghana are now polluted due to galamsey,” he stated.
Ambassador Skinnebach further warned that the effects of illegal mining extend beyond environmental degradation, touching on public health, corruption and national security concerns.
“We know that it has effects on the health of the workers but also of the regular Ghanaian consumer. Clearly, it has implications for governance, clearly it has implications for corruption, clearly it has implications for security also,” he said.
He called for long-term and sustainable solutions backed by effective regulation and strict enforcement.
“To address a complex issue like galamsey, first of all, we need to think long term, we need to think sustainability, we need to have regulation and we need to have enforcement of the regulation,” he stressed.
The Ambassador also argued that rising global gold prices present Ghana with an opportunity to strengthen regulated mining while protecting the environment.
“Gold prices are high; we can have a regulated exploration of gold and still make a profit,” he added.
For A Rocha Ghana, which has remained one of the country’s leading environmental advocacy organisations campaigning against illegal mining, the invasion of land behind its office highlights what campaigners describe as the worsening scale of environmental destruction caused by galamsey activities across Ghana.
