Ghana Bauxite Company’s mining-related activities polluting Sefwi Atronsu Stream -CSOs

Civil society organisations are highlighting the way legal and illegal mining activities are destroying the environment.

Recently environmental organisations including A Rocha Ghana, Eco-Conscious Citizens, Youth Alliance For Green Ghana, Ghana Youth Environment Movement, Ghana Environment Advocacy Group, Atronsu Youth & Farmers Anti-Community/Small Scale Mining Group, Daby Foundation, SOY Africa, Youth Volunteers for the Environment, and AbibiNsroma Foundation went on a two day protest asking for the repeal of the retrogressive Legislative Instrument L.I. 2462 ‘Environmental Protection (Mining in Forest Reserves) Regulations’, which was quietly passed in November 2022. Civil society only became aware of the passage of L.I.2462 in March 2023.

L.I. 2462 virtually allows unfettered mining in our forest reserves, including globally significant biodiversity areas. This is a kick in the teeth and makes a mockery of the Green Ghana initiative and efforts to combat climate change and deforestation.

An example regarding legal mining related activities causing environmental concerns is Ghana Bauxite Company (GBC). According to environmental activists at Sefwi Atronsu, GBC is constructing a road in furtherance of its mining activities, and has caused piles of sand to be heaped in such a way that when it rains, the sand pours into the Atronsu stream, polluting the once pristine stream.

“Ghana Bauxite Company is polluting our Atronsu stream due to their mining activities, which the Environmental Protection Agency and other authorities are aware of, but are quiet,”says Patrick Japheth Danso, a member of Atronsu Youth & Farmers Anti-Community/Small Scale Mining Group.

“We are not able to drink from the stream whenever it rains heavily, and they themselves are also suffering because their workers at the GBC compound get their water from this same stream” adds Danso.

Legal and illegal mining activities are destroying our forest reserves, farmlands and water bodies. Concerned citizens call on the relevant authorities to act before it is too late.

Eco-Conscious Citizens has been in communications with GBC since last year, when they promised to look into the matter of the pollution of the Atronsu stream. Sadly, they have not come back with a response, and the Atronsu community continues to endure seeing their once pristine stream polluted with brown coloured water coming out of their taps.

We call upon Ghana Bauxite Company to take their corporate social responsibilities seriously and resolve this problem created by their mining activities as a matter of urgency.

Awula Serwah
Eco-Conscious Citizens coordinator
EcoConsciousCitizens@gmail.com
https://linktr.ee/EcoConsciousCitizens