The call for a State of emergency has been incessant in the last few weeks on the back of harrowing pictures circulating on various social media platforms.

The pollution levels of the various water bodies have further heightened these calls.

The calls appear to have taken a stronger dimension with the Catholic Bishop Conference emphatically calling for a Declaration of a State of Emergency in the mining areas.

THE PRESIDENCY

The Presidency, some argue, only exacerbated the issue when He made it clear in a media briefing last week that a State of Emergency was only going to be a last resort.

For him, mechanisms that had been put in place under his administration, which include, but are not limited to, blue water guards and the various task forces, were achieving results.

What then would be the last resort before He would be forced to act?

When as many people are contracting all kinds of sicknesses leading to unprecedented levels of death, as many children are born with deformities, crazy levels of turbidity with our water bodies or when a huge chunk of the national budget is used in the importation of drugs to deal with the menace, many question.

FIELD TRIPS

I have spent a greater part of the last few days doing some legwork within the middle belt of the country, and I have got to say that the levels of illegal mining is as shocking and revealing to say the least.

In one of my trips within the Atiwa-Kwarbeng, Techiman, Anyinam all the way to Kade, the brazen nature with which as many excavators were dotted all over the place was worrying to say the least.

The lads I met were bold to tell me about the wealth that surrounded the business and how those of us in Accra were only making ‘noise’ about the menace.

“We were used to farming to take care of ourselves until some of us ventured into this space.

The effort we have to put in on a daily basis to take care of ourselves was nothing to write home about.

Thus, many of the locals have now ventured into this business.

There are people who are making thousands of cedis every week, way more than the yields from farms and cocoa in a year. We make good money, and absolutely nothing would stop us.

Every now are then, all kinds of security people come for operations in the galamsey areas, but we are normally tipped of by some of them who are on our payroll.

We give them good money for those services, they alleged.

When these security guys come over, they only see these excavators and no human beings.

We hide the essential parts, making it almost impossible for them to tow them away. When they leave after a few days, we go back to continue our business, one of them muttered.”

It was also clear to me at a point that some very powerful and influential individuals tied to political bigwigs were a part of this mess.

The young lads, many of whom were between the ages of 18-25 were quick to throw in a name or two but were also quick to add that it was a long chain of individuals involved in the menace and that they did not really care who these bosses were as long as they made their money.

POLLUTION OF THE BIRIM

Another sad spectacle for me on that stretch was the pollution of the Birim River and the destruction of large palm fronds. Granted, the locals were no longer interested in the palm business, but the destruction of the water bodies was a massive concern. I asked the locals about their sources of water since they were dangerously polluted with all kinds of chemicals, and their answers were astonishing. Some told me that they had reverse-osmosis machines at home to treat their water while some also said they had supplies from as far as Accra every week.

They clearly had a plan for any eventualities.

Sadly, though, as many of the locals who cannot afford to buy truckloads of water from as far as Accra still depend on these water bodies and those of pumps dotted all over these communities.

When I enquired about the role of the Elders and Chiefs in clamping down on the menace, their answers were shocking and emphatic.

They made it clear that some of the Chiefs and community elders were colluding with the authorities and selling the lands to the highest bidders.

I was further informed that the older generation was being forced to also sell their cocoa and palm lands if discoveries of precious metals were cited close to their lands.

Others were also given offers they simply could not resist.

In the course of all these engagements with the locals, it was very common to see tricycles popularly known as Aboboyaa going back and forth with these young men loaded with gallons of fuel and food to the galamsey sites.

That some of them were in the bushes for days on end looking for the precious metals necessitated the trips with these gallons of fuel and food. Now that was revealing.

DEPLOYMENT OF THE MILITARY

Before leaving the enclave, I was clear in my mind that it was going to take a monumental security effort to prevent the levels of destruction in that enclave.

I gather the government is planning to station permanent security teams in these zones and forests to deal with the threat going forward.

I thought this call had been made months ago.

As a nation, until we come to the realisation that the levels of destruction have harmful consequences on our very existence, we will make very little progress in this fight.

I don’t know the briefs

The President gets on these matters, but after what I observed, the nation has a long way to go in dealing with these crazy levels of environmental terrorism.

The writer, Kwame Dwomoh-Agyemang is the Host of the Morning Show on Class 91.3FM.