When activist Oliver Parker Formaur saw reports in September that Ghana’s water agency would not be able to supply water to some parts of the country due to severe pollution of major rivers as a result of small-scale mining activities, he knew he had to do something.

Later that month, Formawar and dozens of other concerned Ghanaians took to the streets in the capital, Accra, to protest what they said was President Nana Akufo-Addo’s failure to stop the “looming environmental catastrophe.” They were determined to put the matter on the ballot before the election The highly contested general elections in December. But instead of getting a response to their demands, Vormaur and several of his comrades were arrested and imprisoned for weeks on charges of unlawful assembly.

Now, despite the exclusion of Akufo-Addo’s New Patriotic Party, activists like Voormaur say they have no confidence in the new president, John Mahama, and his ability to control the growing pollution in Ghana’s rivers and soil.

“There is no road map yet from Mahama on how to address the problem,” Vormaer, who once worked at the United Nations as a legal officer, told Al Jazeera. “It is really difficult to say that his government will be more aggressive on this matter because even as an opposition party, it has been very hesitant and uncomfortable in taking up this issue,” he added, referring to Mahama’s National Democratic Congress.

The West African country, formerly called the “Gold Coast,” is under pressure from ongoing large-scale and small-scale mining of the shiny metal. Much of this craft activity falls under what locals call “galamsey,” or more fully “gather and sell.” The term once referred to illegal mining, carried out mostly by untrained young men and women, but now more loosely includes small, licensed operations that mine unsustainably.

Officials are allegedly complicit in Galamsey

Galamsey has been in place for many years, but gold prices that rose globally to an all-time high (nearly $3,000 per gram) in late 2024 have caused a corresponding increase in illegal mining across Ghana and, in effect, more devastation. Concentrator in Ghana. Bodies of water.

Small-scale miners use a lot of water by digging up soil around riverbeds in forested areas and washing it to uncover gold ore. They use toxic chemicals such as mercury and cyanide to separate the gold from the ore, and those chemicals flow into rivers that hundreds of communities depend on for drinking and domestic use. Some people say they earn around $70 to $100 a day.

By 2017, more than 60% of the country’s water bodies were already contaminated with mercury and other heavy metals, turning once-clear rivers dark brown, according to the country’s Water Resources Commission. The chemicals, which can damage the lungs, affect thousands of acres of farmland. The Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) said it has lost 2 percent of its total cocoa growing area due to mining. Some farmers claim that galliform operators are buying up their land or intimidating them into selling.

“This is a problem that has been going on for decades, but it is a problem that is rapidly escalating and this has created a feeling among Ghanaians that we are running out of time to protect our country and our people,” Eorabena Yane-Okofor, country director of the NGO WaterAid, told Al Jazeera.

“While illegal gold mining used to occur mainly in the south of the country, our research shows that it is now endemic in the north. The presence of mercury and other toxins in the water leads to skin diseases and other health crises,” she added.

In 2024 a reportWaterAid has warned that Ghana may have to import water by 2030 in a business as usual scenario with shrinking sources of drinking water.

Activists are particularly angry about LI 2462, an Akufo-Addo-era law passed in November 2022, which allowed the designation of mining concessions in biodiversity hotspots in the country, including protected forests. A previous policy was limited to mining in forests and protected reserves of about 2 percent of their total area.

Many activists at the time denounced the law and drew attention to the fact that the country lost the equivalent of 30,000 football fields to deforestation for logging, agriculture, and illegal mining of gold and other minerals such as bauxite that year.

However, the government went ahead with the law and proceeded to approve mining licenses – for prospecting, industrial operations and small-scale mining, at an unprecedented rate. While officials gave out an estimated 90 licenses between 1988 and early 2017, at least 2,000 more were granted between September 2017 and January 2025, according to Data From Ghana mining depot. This period falls within Akufo-Addo’s term in office. Most of the licenses were for small mines, and major reserves such as the Nkrabia Forest Reserve, west of Accra, and the Buen Tano Reserve, located in the western region of the country, were among those allocated.

Anger against Akufo-Addo’s government intensified after it emerged that some of the companies newly licensed under LI 2462 belonged to high-ranking politicians and members of Akufo-Addo’s NNP party and that some of these people were also running illegal mines.

People in Ghana are protesting against illegal gold mining, which has poisoned more than 60% of the country’s water bodies.

If illegal mining continues at the current rate, experts say the entire country could be importing water by 2030. pic.twitter.com/EOIQB7Oh3w

– AJ Plus (@ajplus) October 25, 2024

In April 2023, a controversial report submitted to Akufo-Addo by former Environment Minister Kwabena Frimpong Boateng was leaked to the public. In it, Frimpong Boateng accused “several party officials… their friends, personal assistants, agents and relatives” of engaging in illegal mining. He accused, among others, Gabi Asare Otchere-Darko, an influential businessman and relative of Akufo-Addo, of interfering in the arrest of mining companies that destroyed forests.

“It was no secret that they were using this as a way to raise money for the party, and that the officials would get their little corners,” activist Vormaur told Al Jazeera. Activists like him say the spread of small-scale mining has attracted more illegal mines, as the government has failed to set standards and ensure oversight.

Akufo-Addo’s government has denied the allegations in Frimpong-Boateng’s report and said it is a list of “personal grievances” without evidence. In October 2024, the administration deployed the army across the country’s water bodies to eliminate illegal miners under a special “Operation Stop”.

New president, but little hope

However, Galamsey’s findings are stark. On January 2, the Ghana Water Agency again closed a water treatment plant, this time in the Tarkwa-Nswayem West District, due to severe pollution of the Bunsa River, which provides drinking water to more than 200,000 people in the area. This was the second time in five months that the authorities had to cut off supplies.

President Mahama, who was He took the oath For the second time after taking office on January 7, he promised to “reset” Ghana and tackle illegal mining.

In an interview with Voice of America days after his landslide victory in the December elections, Mahama said his government would prioritize passing a law banning mining in forest reserves and areas near bodies of water. He also promised that his administration would work with the country’s Environmental Protection Agency to clean up rivers polluted by effluent and heavy metals.

But the president stopped short of promising to cancel the small licenses that were recently approved, or suspend new privileges, pointing out that they provide a means of making a living.

“People need to distinguish between small-scale mining and illegal mining: small-scale mining is legal,” the president said. “There are ways to do this without destroying the environment in Canada, Australia and the United States. The technology is there. So why not train our employees to do mining in a way that is safe for the environment? We are willing to look at these matters.”

Mahama first led the government for four years between 2012 and 2016. At the time, Galamsey was already a problem, although his administration was credited with banning mining in forest reserves.

However, some accused the Mahama administration of failing to stem the influx of Chinese nationals who flocked to Ghana to invest in small-scale mining equipment such as earth excavators and who worked alongside Ghanaian locals. In 2013, the Ghana Immigration Service deported more than 4,500 Chinese nationals after raids on illegal mines. Now, much of the illegal mining is carried out by Ghanaians.

Activist Voormaor said he did not expect much from Mahama’s government due to the “weak behavior” of his administration in his first presidency. He said the president should revoke the controversial Akufo-Addo law and several licenses and declare a state of emergency. Vormaur said that without these measures, he would not stop protesting.

“Yes, there is small-scale mining and there is illegal mining, but most of it is simply irresponsible mining,” the activist said. “The work is not over yet because there is a crisis looming, and we have to draw a line between people getting a living and damaging the environment.”