A galamsey
is a local artisanal gold miner in Ghana, West Africa; such
workers are known as orpailleurs in neighboring francophone nations. Galamseys are
people who do gold mining independent of mining companies, digging small
workings (pits, tunnels and sluices) by hand.
The word galamsey (pronounced: GAH-lahm-SAY)
is Pidgin English for "gather them and sell," which is what these
workers (referred to as galamsey, themselves) do when they mine for gold. Internationally
it is called artisanal small-scale mining.
According to galamsey expert Gavin Hilson, at
the University of Reading in the UK, artisanal mining accounts for 15 percent
of Ghana's national gold production (2010). But because most small-scale mining
operations are not registered with the government, technically speaking, their
work is illegal.
World Water Day has been observed on 22 March since 1993 when the United Nations General Assembly declared 22 March as "World Day for Water".[1]This day was first formally proposed in
Agenda 21 of the 1992 United Nations Conference
on Environment and Development (UNCED) in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Observance began in 1993 and
has grown significantly ever since; for the general public to show support, it
is encouraged for the public to not use their taps throughout the whole day.
Each year, World Water
Day highlights a specific aspect of freshwater. Under the theme ‘Water and
Sustainable Development’, the year 2015 provides an important opportunity to
consolidate and build upon the previous World Water Days to highlight water's
role in the sustainable development agenda.
What I intend doing is to
throw the searchlight on the negative activities of galamsey on water bodies,
using the Western Region of Ghana as an example, on the occasion of the 2015
World Water Day. It will then be followed by a portion of the Executive Summary
of the United Nations World Water Development Report 2015 which states the UN’s
position on the water situation in the world.
Daily
Graphic News Paper of March 28, 2012: Research conducted by the Council for
Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) has established that many communities
in the Western Region face serious health risk from water bodies heavily
polluted by small-scale mining activities.
It
further established that small-scale mining activities had extensively damaged
the soil and forest in the region, posing a serious threat to sustainable development
and posterity.
According
to the Research, the River Ankobra, which is the main source of drinking water
for many communities in the region, is one of the heavily polluted water
bodies.
High
concentrations of arsenic, manganese, mercury, and lead were found in the
drinking water of some of the communities during the research.
`These
were made known at a seminar in Accra yesterday (March 27, 2012) by a team of
researchers from the CSIR who undertook the research. Scientists say the
inhalation of mercury vapour could cause memory and speech loss, Numbness,
vision problems, convulsion and, in some cases, death.
Lead
poisoning could also cause anaemia, weakness, constipation, colic, palsy and
paralysis of the wrist and ankles, apart from reducing intelligence in children,
delay in psycho-motor development, impair memory and hearing problems.
One
of the researchers, Dr O.D.Ansa Asare, called on regulatory bodies such as the
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Minerals Commission to control
the activities of small-scale miners to avoid disaster in the future.
He
underscored the need to assist small- scale miners with the requisite
technology to refine gold to avoid polluting water bodies.
Dr.
Ansa-Asare, who is the Head of Environmental Chemistry Division at the Water
Research Institute of CSIR, said given the seriousness of the situation, it was
important for the regulatory bodies to act promptly to save the country’s water
bodies.
The
Deputy Director-General of the CSIR, Dr. (Mrs.) R.E.M Entsuah-Mensah, who
chaired the function, said the essence of the seminar was to let the nation
know about the findings of the research. She appealed for sponsorship to enable
researchers of the CSIR to undertake more studies that would enhance national
development.
Though
the report was made in the year 2012, it is still relevant today, because the
situation has not changed.
The United Nations World Water
Development Report 2015: Over the past several decades, ever-growing demand
for- and misuse of- water resources have increased the risks of pollution and
severe water stress in many parts of the world. The frequency and intensity of
local water crises have been increasing, with serious implications for public
health, environmental sustainability, food and energy security, and economic
development.
Although the central and
irreplaceable roles that water occupies in all dimensions of sustainable
development have become progressively recognized, the management of water
resources and the provision of water-related services remains far too low on
the scales of public perception and of governmental priorities. As a result,
water often becomes a limiting factor, rather than an enabler to social welfare,
economic development and healthy ecosystems.
The fact is there is enough
water available to meet the world’s growing needs, but not without dramatically
changing the way water is used, managed and shared. The global water crisis is
one of governance, much more than of resource availability and this is where
the bulk of the action is required in order to achieve a water secure world.
www.clp.org (now the seattle globalist)
http://www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Water_Day
Daily
Graphics News Paper (Wednesday, March 28, 2012 Edition- story by Kofi Yeboah)
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