10 signatures reached
To: President of Ghana
Stop the pollution of Ghanaian rivers and soils by irresponsible gold mining
Dear Sir, please take serious action against any mining companies - whether foreign or national - that mine gold without treating the waste products in a responsible way. As far as I can tell, government officials have so far only paid lip service and police and army personnel have only performed some theatre in the affected places. The problem seems to be that the culprits bribe their way out. It is said that the companies involved in such bribing are mainly of Chinese origin. High level officials of your government may be involved in this corruption. Please have this investigated and have appropriate action taken. And please give government institutions such as the Environmental Protection Agency more authority and place staff under strict scrutiny so that this kind of corruption will stop. Thank you!
Why is this important?
Up till recently irresponsible gold mining was limited to Western Region, which drains into the relatively small Ankobra, Bia, Pra and Tano rivers. The activities of Ashanti Goldfields Corporation and its American-owned successor AngloGold Ashanti in the past and the more recent galamsey mining in Wassa West and Wassa East districts have seriously polluted those rivers with toxic heavy metals and other poisonous chemicals. Now irresponsible gold mining has started in the Upper East and Upper West Regions - e.g. near Kongo. This is going to seriously affect the lower watershed of the Volta River - incl. Lake Volta - and therefore a large part of the nation - not to mention the soils of the surroundings. As you know, fish is an important source of protein for Ghanaians - caught as well as farmed fish. Soon they're all going to be poisoned unless they stop eating fish and are going to be affected by even more slow killer diseases (which don't get priority).