Berekum residents protest against galamsey destruction
Hundreds of residents of Berekum in the Bono Region on Tuesday staged a peaceful demonstration against what they described as the wanton destruction of farmlands and water bodies through illegal mining, popularly known as galamsey.
The demonstration, which attracted more than 500 people, came less than 24 hours after a similar protest at Atronie in the Sunyani East Municipality, with residents calling for urgent action by the authorities to protect the environment and safeguard their livelihoods.
The demonstrators said their livelihoods and survival were under serious threat and called for immediate measures to halt the unrestrained activities of illegal miners in the area.
The protest, organised by the Berekum Citizens Association and Youth Development and Accountability, was also intended to petition President John Dramani Mahama to take decisive action against illegal mining, as the protesters said they had lost confidence in the authorities in the Bono Region.
Several farming communities, including Benkasa, Nanasuno, Biadan and Amomaso, as well as adjoining communities, have reportedly been affected by the activities of illegal miners.
The Chief of Daben of the Berekum Traditional Council, Nana Oppong Boateng, told The Ghanaian Times that vegetable farmers at Amomaso were no longer able to carry out their farming activities because illegal miners had taken over their farmlands and polluted the Amomaso River, which the farmers depended on for irrigation.
He said several complaints submitted to the Bono Regional Coordinating Council, led by the Regional Minister, Joseph Addae Akwaboah, had yet to yield any favourable results.
Nana Oppong Boateng, therefore, appealed to President Mahama to take a personal interest in the situation and help bring sanity to Berekum and its surrounding communities.
According to him, the once-pristine environment was increasingly bearing the scars of illegal mining, with the pollution of rivers such as the Amoma, Nishimura and Kura threatening water sources that had supported farming activities in the area for generations.
In a related development, chiefs and residents of Atronie on Monday resorted to traditional rituals to seek divine intervention over the destruction of the environment by illegal miners.
The residents slaughtered a ram as part of traditional rites to invoke spiritual powers to drive away activities they considered harmful to the community’s natural resources.
FROM DANIEL DZIRASAH, BEREKUM
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