Poisoned for gold: scientists warn of possible toxic heavy metals in crops and fish from mining areas | The Big Stories
Poisoned for gold: scientists warn of possible toxic heavy metals in crops and fish from mining areas | The Big Stories
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Transcript
00:00 Meet Baby X, preserved informally at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology
00:09 for observation.
00:12 He or she is not your normal baby.
00:17 Baby X is deformed.
00:19 It has no genitals.
00:22 It has six fingers and six toes and a malformed head.
00:28 This baby was discovered by Professor Osei Sampini, a pathologist, scientist, and a senior
00:35 lecturer with the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology.
00:39 The first case I've heard was in the Western North, which is Bibiani to be precise.
00:46 The mother was sent to the labor ward.
00:50 She couldn't make it, so she died.
00:52 And you see, once the person dies, usually the doctors will not go ahead to do cesarean
00:58 section.
00:59 The baby and the mother are sent to the morgue.
01:04 And then another person comes in to remove the baby.
01:10 This was after the autopsy to separate the baby from the mother, who died before delivery.
01:16 The baby or the foetus that was in the mother's womb was deformed.
01:21 Deformed in the sense that the baby had multiple limbs, including, I'm talking about upper
01:29 and lower limbs.
01:31 The eye was not well formed, fused together.
01:37 He had no sexes.
01:39 That is, there was no identifiable sex.
01:42 Generally, I mean, in medicine we call dysmorphic, where you could not see anything that makes
01:49 the baby, if he had been even born, would have lived comfortably in life.
01:57 Professor Sampene traces the cause of the deformities to heavy concentrations of lead,
02:03 mercury and cyanide found in the placenta.
02:07 Mercury, cyanide, lead and arsenic, yes, in that order.
02:16 They were all there, of course, in some appreciable concentration that could be damaging to the
02:25 normal function or the normal development of the DNA, the baby, and so on and so forth.
02:33 Once it is in the placenta, naturally it will be in the baby.
02:36 Because the placenta is the only means by which the baby gets his feed.
02:42 The oxygen the baby gets is from the placenta.
02:46 Everything that the baby gets was in the uterus, it's from the placenta.
02:50 Baby X is perhaps the strongest proof ever of how heavy metal contamination can alter
02:58 the developmental stages of a fetus, leading to extreme deformation in babies.
03:04 I was surprised because medicine evolves.
03:09 People have done studies in some of these things.
03:12 If you see them in the literatures, the books that you read, the biology books, the pathology
03:18 books, the anatomy books, the histology books and all those things, sometimes you see them,
03:24 you feel these are things that are just like toys or something that do not exist, people's
03:31 imaginations.
03:32 But when I saw it, then I realized that yes, it's true.
03:36 The X's preserved body is a grim presentation of an unseen danger lurking in the midst of
03:43 communities affected by irresponsible mining and the selfish pollution of the Ghanaian
03:49 environment for gold.
03:53 Professor Sampini has so far seen and tested four of such babies with extreme deformities.
04:02 He has similarly found disturbing levels of lead and mercury in all of them.
04:07 I had a similar call to go and get another one done.
04:12 That was in Central Region, Dunkwa Hospital.
04:15 And the same thing was found.
04:16 Then comes other cases in the Ashanti region, where another one was also found to be in
04:26 a similar manner.
04:28 And then the Western Region again, where another one was also found.
04:33 Then I realized that there should be some correlation here.
04:36 And that correlation is what the spillage of what?
04:43 Any pollutant, any form of pollutant into the ecosystem where we need to actually address.
04:52 And I decided, look, let me just now get all the placentas labeled, parts of the babies,
04:59 these fetuses, parts, organs like the kidney, the liver, these vital organs.
05:05 Let me just take bits and pieces of them and then do some work, laboratory work around
05:13 it and see what could be the reason.
05:16 He concludes that this is a grim reality of a possible widespread catastrophe which needs
05:23 further public health research on a large scale.
05:27 The conclusion is that heavy metals are in the system.
05:33 Irresponsible mining generates tailings, a by-product of the sluicing process in extracting
05:39 the gold.
05:41 These are done haphazardly without a recourse to environmental safety and protection.
05:48 Consequently, the heavy metals in the tailings are released into water bodies, the soil,
05:54 food chain, surface and groundwater.
05:59 This type of uncontrolled mining introduces naturally occurring poisonous heavy metals
06:06 into water bodies like the pra.
06:10 The Environmental Protection Agency in its research conducted on fishes in the Tano River
06:15 in 2022 revealed alarming levels of mercury.
06:23 Dr. Jackson Edeye Nyantechi is the half original director of the Environmental Protection Agency.
06:31 He spoke at a transformational dialogue on small scale mining organized by the University
06:37 of Energy and Natural Resources, Sunyane.
06:40 In fish samples that were taken from river tunnel at the Dan Tano area there, I thought
06:47 I was just doing something simple.
06:50 But when I realized the levels of mercury in the fish samples, I became so alarmed.
06:55 I looked at the levels in muscle, the fish muscles, the head, the gills, the eye and
07:01 the bones.
07:02 The highest concentration was in the gills.
07:05 The bones were also there.
07:06 So since then I have stopped eating the head of the fish as well as the bones.
07:11 I only eat the muscles and that is it.
07:13 There's an actual link between heavy metal found in the soil and food.
07:18 Dr. Albert Kobunamensa is a research scientist with a PhD in heavy metals in mine affected
07:26 tailings and soil, forest, water and land degradation.
07:32 He reveals the link between these poisonous metals and food grown from these areas.
07:38 I collected samples from Obuase, areas that are contaminated with arsenic, with cadmium,
07:45 with lead and copper.
07:47 And we cultivated the soil in a pot in a greenhouse.
07:52 But there were alarming concentrations of heavy metal that were accumulated in the lettuce.
08:10 And this is exactly how we are poisoning ourselves for gold.
08:17 The scientists have given us their warnings.
08:21 They're seeing all of these things happening.
08:23 Children being born.
08:24 And at first they felt, our medical people felt it was maybe some nature at work with
08:31 some disparities in there.
08:34 But you see children with extra limbs, genitalia among others not properly formed, head not
08:41 properly formed, among other parts of the body.
08:44 Then you take samples from the placenta like was done in one instance and you realize,
08:49 whoa, what is happening here?
08:51 High concentrations of all of these heavy metals.
08:54 Mercury, lead among others.
08:58 Then you collect other samples, go through the same process and realize from different
09:02 parts of the country, Galamsey, illegal mining is killing us.
09:08 The venom of it, we're feeling.
09:11 You may sit in a cry and say, but the food you consume, the fish you consume, the leafy
09:18 vegetables, wherever they come from, we are all getting poisoned for gold.
09:24 And that's why we're having this conversation this morning.
09:27 Our guests, Dr. Abdul Wadud Momin, Senior Lecturer, School of Mines, University of Energy
09:34 and Natural Resources.
09:36 We also have Elizabeth Aluah Va, Executive Director, Ghana Environmental Advocacy Group.
09:44 It's been so long since I spoke to Elizabeth.
09:46 It's really good to have her.
09:48 And later we'll also have an interaction with Darrell Bossu.
09:53 And there's something I'll get into as far as the Western region is concerned and what
09:58 is happening there.
09:59 But let me say a very good morning to Elizabeth Va, who joins us virtually.
10:04 Elizabeth, good morning.
10:06 Good morning.
10:09 It's so good to have you.
10:11 It's been a long time.
10:12 I don't know.
10:13 What have you been up to as far as protecting Ghana's environment is concerned?
10:18 Yeah, nice.
10:20 Nice talking to you.
10:21 It's been a while and I wish we didn't have to meet on these topics.
10:25 I've just been after one item after the other.
10:31 Currently there is a prospecting license that has been issued for mining of the Amanzule
10:38 conservation area.
10:39 That's exactly what I was talking about that I would get to.
10:42 I grew up on the Amanzule and so I am just, you know, I haven't been able to sleep the
10:47 past few days.
10:48 We've gotten quite a number of signatures.
10:53 So we're going to be sending it to the Minerals Commission.
10:56 We have to get a hold on this kind of man-made destruction of ourselves, our environment
11:04 and now our future generation.
11:08 So I am doing this to my director for the day, Ashi Levi.
11:14 I am sending him a photo of that area.
11:17 If not, we can get a photo of the Amanzule conservation area.
11:23 Okay, I'm putting it to him out there.
11:26 He is directing.
11:27 He's my boss.
11:28 I want people, there's this aerial view of the place.
11:31 Doc, Dr. Momen is in the studio.
11:34 Let me, let me.
11:35 There's this aerial view.
11:36 Look at that.
11:37 And we'll try and put it on your screen.
11:40 That is what we're allowing people to go and mine in.
11:45 With the few pristine resources we have when it comes to water bodies.
11:51 Now even that place we're allowing, we're giving out concessions to go there.
11:57 Yeah, let me just explain that.
12:01 It's not the exact place, but you know, rivers take their sources from somewhere.
12:07 So the beautiful one you see along the coast in Enzima is actually taking its source from
12:13 small streams up the, closer to the Ancobra, within that area.
12:19 Yes.
12:20 And that is why it's called the Amanzule conservation area.
12:23 Once you hit there, the next day you see the river you see so nice is gone.
12:28 There wouldn't be any mining in it, but it's being polluted from the source.
12:32 The same way that the Joint Lagoon, there's no mining in the Joint Lagoon, but because
12:39 Tano is polluted from Samariboi, Joint Lagoon is now, is now a total polluted pond.
12:48 Hmm.
12:49 Well, I guess what we're looking for as a nation eventually we'll find.
12:55 Dr. Muhammad, thank you for joining us in the studio.
13:00 Your take on this, I mean, it's also been a while since you joined us for a conversation.
13:06 If I were to ask you the state of illegal mining, the state of, the state of getting
13:14 better in the fight, you know, Mr. President has been going round and he often touts how
13:19 much we are doing.
13:21 What is your reading of that situation before we get into the nitty gritty?
13:26 Thank you very much for having me this morning.
13:28 It's a privilege to speak to Ghanians and discuss such a pertinent issue.
13:34 The picture that you just showed me, I flew over that site two days, only two days ago.
13:39 Over there two days ago.
13:40 And we have that picture.
13:41 I think we can, we can just put it, that's it.
13:43 That's it.
13:44 That's the area.
13:45 It may not be specifically, but that's the area we're talking about.
13:48 Yes, I have no doubt.
13:49 I'm telling you I flew over there two days, just two days ago, and I had a live aerial
13:54 view of the inflows of water.
13:57 And I agree with Elizabeth when she says that there is no mining concession at that place,
14:02 at that point.
14:03 At that point.
14:04 That you see.
14:05 But you would find that the concentrated water with heavy metals are actually flowing from
14:11 upstream channels.
14:12 They will eventually get there.
14:14 Yes, that's what I will agree with you.
14:17 And that is not a mining concession.
14:19 And I would want to say that Minerals Commission has no idea.
14:22 I'm not actually doing the upgrading, but Minerals Commission has no idea about what
14:26 is happening over there.
14:28 Shouldn't they?
14:29 They should.
14:30 They have monitoring schemes in place.
14:33 But sometimes you see, we have to come to terms with the fact that illegal mining is
14:38 a criminal activity.
14:41 Some of us say we shouldn't criminalize them, we should formalize them.
14:44 But those who go outside the formalization processes are actually criminalizing their
14:48 own activities.
14:50 So if we look at it in that perspective, criminals are always ahead of the security intelligence,
14:56 right?
14:57 By the time I was with Dr. Tony Obie, former Minerals Commission CEO, and we discussed
15:02 this.
15:03 By the time you spot them at a particular place, they have advanced to the next stage
15:08 of development.
15:09 And it's really difficult for the Minerals Commission to track them.
15:12 So the U.S. Embassy, together with the Department of State, U.S. Department of State, came into
15:19 some collaboration with UMAT.
15:21 And they invited us to discuss how we could come up with technology inventions to actually
15:28 help in the tracking and reporting of these activities.
15:31 So as you rightly said, we could use the satellite data, satellite imagery to track the origin
15:37 of the source of pollution, and then be able to actually create a buffer around communities
15:44 that are likely to suffer from contamination downstream from upstream polluters.
15:50 That's the illegal miners upstream.
15:53 And we are coming up with so many ideas as to how we can do this, and even make the information
15:58 public, share with media houses like yours, that at any point in time, near real-time
16:05 analysis and reporting of these activities.
16:08 We share with you.
16:09 You run them just as you have just run this one, and I'm confirming that I've flown over
16:13 the area in the last two days.
16:15 It is likely that we would have technological revolution to actually inform citizenry and
16:22 the best course of action to take.
16:24 Let me recall the words of Chief Andani, the former CEO of Stambic Bank, when this year
16:31 he came to address as the keynote speaker Ghana Mining and Energy Summit.
16:37 He said that if government and if all the powers that be do not take a concerted action,
16:44 it is going to lead a revolution of chiefs, a revolution led by chiefs, to fight against
16:50 illegal mining.
16:52 But I can also assure you that all hands are on deck and there is...
16:56 I'll tell you for a fact, people like Dr Kenneth Ashigbe.
17:00 That's right.
17:01 You know, you know the pivotal role.
17:03 Someone was speaking to me recently and telling me about the frustrations he is going through.
17:09 So you tell me about the Minerals Commission and this body and that body.
17:12 I'll tell you for a fact that yes, while in many instances these groups, and I'm not singling
17:16 out anyone, may try, there are also instances where they know very well and they turn a
17:21 blind eye.
17:22 You know why?
17:23 Because of politics.
17:24 Yes.
17:25 And because of other things that happen.
17:26 I mean, look at what happened to the Professor Frenpon-Watting, you know, reports and everything
17:33 else.
17:34 Of course, it took even two years gathering dust before we got wind of it, through a leak
17:37 and everything.
17:38 So the question, and I think I'll put it to Elizabeth as well.
17:41 The question I am posing then is month on month, you said you wished we wouldn't even
17:47 be here having this conversation.
17:49 Do you see any progress at all when it comes to the fight against illegal mining?
17:56 And I want us to use that to situate the conversation on poison for gold, where we actually see
18:02 the palpable effects of this.
18:05 Elizabeth.
18:06 Yes, thank you.
18:09 Not from official though, from official sources, I've only seen the usual talk, you know, the
18:17 nice things and then nothing happens on the ground or on the ground is the opposite.
18:22 I sit here and I get pictures, videos of champhans being driven, placed on the washing machines,
18:31 placed on trucks on the way to Nyamebetwe, different places in the Njera area, in the
18:39 Lembel area, in the East.
18:42 I sit here and I get them.
18:44 The question is, what are our police and all those people who are supposed to be responsible
18:50 for those areas doing?
18:52 So, from official, no.
18:55 But I am seeing a lot of interest from communities as we bring these issues to the attention.
19:02 Like I told you, the Emanzula issue, we took it up like three days ago and already I have
19:09 almost 700 signatures on the petition that we are getting ready to send to the Minerals
19:15 Commission.
19:16 I've informed our allies, I've informed our king, and they are all looking at what they
19:22 can do to make sure that the Minerals Commission is put on notice, as well as the EPA and the
19:28 concessionaire.
19:29 So, the people in the communities are waking up.
19:33 And I am hoping that this very, very educative and informative documentary that Erastos has
19:42 done, and this young man, God bless him, is translated into our local languages and shown
19:50 in every home in our communities.
19:52 Once they see it, they see that it's no longer theoretical, but it's actually reflecting
19:58 in the deformed babies, in dying mothers, in men who are having neurological disorders.
20:07 I think they will advise themselves.
20:11 So, we need to take it to the people and let them fight for themselves.
20:15 Because official, though, I don't know.
20:17 I don't see why the Minerals Commission would sit in Accra and give the Emanzula conservation
20:23 area as a prospecting, a place to prospect for gold.
20:29 And now they want to go and see for themselves.
20:31 Now, isn't it a bit too late?
20:35 Couldn't they have done that earlier on?
20:37 Shouldn't they know which place in Ghana is open for mining?
20:41 If even you say that they are doing a good thing in terms of properly monitoring and
20:46 holding the people that they license to task.
20:49 If they don't, but they just sit and cut, you know, they just take a piece of Ghana
20:55 and say, "That's your concession."
20:57 Well, that's not helping the situation.
21:00 People are dying here.
21:03 People are dying here.
21:05 And now I want to, you know, narrow it down to poison for gold.
21:10 You see everything in that Hotline documentary, which aired, the full-length thing airing
21:15 yesterday at half past eight.
21:18 And you look at what is happening on the ground vis-a-vis what the authorities supposedly
21:25 are doing.
21:27 And then the stark health implications.
21:31 Babies, children, malformation, elderly people, concentrations of these and them.
21:40 Even we're told that for some of them, like mercury and the rest, it may not be physical
21:45 contact or anything.
21:46 Some of them are inhaling these things into them.
21:51 Inhalation.
21:52 Mercury, from what I gather, is even a, it's a metal, but it's one of those, it's a liquid
21:58 metal depending on how you categorize it.
22:01 Imagine inhaling this and what it's doing to our bodies.
22:05 What is your reflection on poison for gold?
22:11 I think it captures it succinctly, what we are doing to ourselves.
22:17 And you know, as a mother, a mother who lost a baby, and also an environmental advocate,
22:23 I just, I've been so down since I watched that yesterday.
22:29 And that's why I'm saying that it tells the message.
22:32 It tells it so well.
22:35 Maybe everything we've said, if people wouldn't even hear it, they must at least see that
22:41 little boy, boy or girl, you can't even tell, that didn't make it just because his mother
22:49 or her mother happened to be in a place where the country, her country could not protect
22:55 her.
22:56 You see, especially in the communities downstream, you go to the downstream of Ancobra and the
23:04 fishermen, the men are fishing in that polluted sea and river.
23:10 That's what they are going to end up consuming.
23:12 They're going to be selling it to you and I, but they are living by that polluted river.
23:20 You go to Tano, the same thing, all the people along those areas, there are human beings,
23:26 fellow Ghanaians, like the president likes to say, and we are poisoning them to death
23:31 on a daily basis.
23:33 Look at the kidney dialysis situation in the country.
23:38 I didn't even know that we had this many kidney situation and this many people suffering from
23:45 kidney failure.
23:46 I didn't even know that, but this is just the tip of the iceberg and it's only going
23:52 to get worse.
23:53 This is a public health emergency.
23:55 If the destruction wouldn't touch people, the public health emergency should.
24:03 It's about time that we spoke up for the people who have no voice and are at the very, very
24:09 receiving end of this.
24:10 Let me come into the studio, Doc.
24:14 You watched it, right?
24:16 Yep.
24:17 Your takeaways.
24:18 It's really a sad situation we have found ourselves in.
24:24 Sometimes it is not good to actually disclose all that we have uncovered because you do
24:29 that, you frighten a lot of people, people will not even want to eat food made in Ghana
24:33 and even produced in Ghana.
24:37 Maybe we should get to the point where we paint the stark reality to the people.
24:40 Like the Ghana Water Company had a point saying, "Look, processing water is becoming so difficult."
24:45 In some instances, they are processing mud to get, because this is contaminated.
24:50 Look at now, they are no longer using the other alum and the rest.
24:54 They are using polymers at extra cost.
24:57 Maybe that is what it will take to get people to realize that we all, maybe I'm benefiting
25:03 a little, but this is the national scale and this is what it's doing to all of us.
25:06 Yes, as a little bit as rightly declared that it's a national public health emergency.
25:13 If we tell you the amount of mercury concentrations in soil and in water, but across the country,
25:19 not just the examples that you are showing, is so alarming.
25:23 My colleague did a study across almost previously the 10 regions in the country, now 16 of them.
25:30 Every region she sampled about three to four communities.
25:35 Two communities that host Galamsey, illegal mining, and three more communities that are
25:41 actually in the vicinity of these communities, host communities.
25:46 It has been found that even testing the urine of people who live outside Galamsey communities,
25:52 there was a lot of mercury concentration in the urine of people.
25:56 You can imagine where we are heading towards dialysis and the population's numbers of people
26:00 that are actually potentially kidney patients in these communities that are even not hosting
26:08 illegal mining.
26:09 Which will put a lot of pressure on the health system that already is not even standing on
26:13 its feet.
26:14 Exactly.
26:15 Where already health professionals are leaving the country in droves.
26:17 Now talk less about those who even live within the vicinity of illegal mining and those who
26:21 actually practice it.
26:23 Through inhalation and through food, through vegetables, and also through water.
26:28 So we will end up in a situation where we have to import food from foreign countries,
26:34 like other countries like Burkina Faso, where we used to even supply food, which is even
26:40 an arid country that cannot actually produce food.
26:45 Now we have to depend on them for at least good food.
26:49 Otherwise there is no region except in the northeastern, northern regions and then OT
26:55 regions that do not actually host illegal mining.
26:59 Every other region that hosts illegal mining activities now, if we sample five communities
27:03 from there, even those that do not host but are neighborhood to practicing operation sites,
27:11 there is no confidence that you will not find mercury concentrations in these areas.
27:16 Apart from mercury also, the other thing is cyanide.
27:20 Interestingly, where do we get the mercury?
27:22 Where do the miners get the mercury from?
27:24 Because I know, you and I know.
27:26 And I know, mercury is not something that you can just go somewhere and go and purchase.
27:29 It's not like that.
27:30 I went to a village in the, what do you call it, in the Boli district and I had discussions
27:36 with the illegal miners.
27:37 They told me, look, we always say they use mercury on site.
27:41 They do not.
27:42 They don't have the capacity to actually buy mercury from the market in Ghana.
27:47 And the restrictions that are in place prevents them from buying mercury.
27:51 Exactly.
27:52 But what happens is that they trade mercury.
27:55 Burkina Faso comes to trade mercury with them for gold.
27:58 And if we can soften some of these restrictions and allow them to be able to register for
28:06 mercury under regulations, it's better than the illegal routes through which Burkina Faso
28:12 and Ivorians bring their mercury into the country.
28:15 But to purchase mercury in Ghana is really expensive and very deterring to illegal miners.
28:20 Yet we find concentrations and actually it's ubiquitous across all Glamce sites.
28:27 No one can say they do not.
28:30 Very scary.
28:31 The situation on the ground is really very scary.
28:33 And I can assure you that you go to restaurants, you will not even want to eat food from the
28:37 restaurant.
28:38 Because most of them are actually harvested from countryside communities that are actually
28:44 mercury laden on the farmlands.
28:49 Elizabeth, and now we know that even the Volta, some portions of it, there have been, apart
28:55 from sand winning, there are some places where there have been attempts to engage in illegal
29:01 mining.
29:02 If that also gets impacted, then I think that would be game, set and match.
29:08 Yes.
29:10 And the doctor said that some of the pictures, we don't want to show them.
29:17 I am for showing it all.
29:19 That's what was done with cigarettes, right?
29:22 Even now in Canada, cigarette sticks have so many warnings on it.
29:30 Even with pictures of a shoveled or damaged land.
29:35 I think we have to show it to people.
29:38 People have to see what they are doing to themselves and what we are allowing them to
29:44 us.
29:46 So we should show them.
29:47 We should show them what it is.
29:49 Because that is the reality of so many.
29:53 Regarding the Volta, I mean, I just, I don't know what to say.
30:00 This country, like this is a national emergency.
30:05 This is a security situation.
30:09 Because our worst enemy, if we were at war with a different country and they did this
30:15 to us, they would have gotten us.
30:17 But we are watching, our army is watching, our interior ministry, our government, our
30:23 president is watching, and we just say nice things and our country is being run over.
30:30 Chief of Staff, Rimpon Bwate, came up with a report.
30:32 This man headed this inter-ministerial committee.
30:36 And we are treating that report like it's just somebody just collected a few things
30:41 and strung them together and sent them out.
30:43 We are told it is empty, that it has nothing in there worthy of pursuing.
30:49 That's what we've been told.
30:50 Empty.
30:51 But we have so much on the ground to show that this is not just empty, empty things.
30:57 Erastos shows you specific forest reserves that were ravaged before some people got their
31:04 license to even go in there.
31:06 And as to why someone would be given a license to go ravage a forest reserve, I still can't
31:12 wrap my mind around it.
31:14 We now have LI-2462.
31:17 I mean, it's like even when we are in the emergency, we keep killing.
31:22 LI-2462 virtually allows the powers that be to give out concessions in forest reserves.
31:33 And there are no restrictions as to how much of the forest reserve can be given, whether
31:38 the people that have given it to need to reforest or not.
31:43 It's like, why open the gates when you can't even hold the little things that the little
31:52 things that you are supposed to hold inside?
31:55 So I don't know where we are headed.
31:57 I don't know what it is that we actually intend to gain from this self-destruction.
32:04 And I'm looking forward to the day when, fortunately, we have some of these things documented, when
32:10 we will be able to bring people to justice, like on behalf of all the people both living
32:18 and dead, and even that fetus that you showed, for the destruction and the loss of life that
32:24 has been caused them by their own state.
32:31 Well, I would want to add something to what Elizabeth has said.
32:37 I personally have proposed over the days that, look, we have to see the use of mercury as
32:45 a narcotic case, where we have to start tracking the roots of mercury into the country and
32:52 out of the country, and also the roots of trade of illicit gold.
32:58 And that is one of the ways that we can actually save the situation.
33:03 Talking about Professor Fumbo-Wartensky, I just read on newspapers three days ago that
33:09 even the OSB is writing to the Chief Justice to ask for a judge that would actually hear
33:16 the case that he has filed during the investigations.
33:21 Yeah.
33:22 Well, we can also talk about the real impact on our land.
33:29 You made mention of, I don't know whether it's Elizabeth, you made mention of our leafy
33:34 vegetables among other things that we are producing.
33:36 We talk about the impact of the water because it seeps into, of course, it is the same water
33:41 from the rivers and others that irrigate the land.
33:46 That's why usually along the banks of any river or water body, you would find that the
33:52 greenery there is pretty lush and everything.
33:56 They are seeping into everything that we are eating.
34:00 And like you mentioned, we may get to the point where we need to import from our neighbors
34:06 because we've contaminated our land.
34:09 Our neighbors have had cause, I think Burkina Faso, the others have had cause at a point
34:14 to complain about what we are doing to our water bodies because they are affecting their
34:18 water bodies.
34:19 All of these water bodies have sources and they go to other places like the Nile.
34:24 So what per these studies have been the impact on the land?
34:30 You've spoken about the water bodies.
34:32 How about the land itself, samples?
34:34 Can you share a bit more on that on the back of poison for gold?
34:38 Because your people also engage in this.
34:40 Is there any such study that has been conducted?
34:42 Yes, if I had known that you would ask me to give, I would have given because I have
34:48 some of them on my laptop, I would have shown them on screen.
34:52 These are land?
34:53 Yes, land, contaminated soils, soils that are actually dominated by heavy metals in
35:01 concentrations.
35:02 So it means if you plant anything there, the plants will naturally absorb these?
35:06 Yes, and the natural vegetation is actually disappearing and new vegetation that is resistant
35:13 to the heavy metals are now appearing on most of these farmlands.
35:17 So that is why you would go to communities that were previously agrarian.
35:22 Now they complain that farm yield is dwindling, is fast disappearing in favor of farming seasons
35:30 because of the presence of these heavy metals in the soils.
35:34 So they introduce different breeds and species of vegetation on the land.
35:41 So when you plant crops, those new breeds introduce a species of crops.
35:49 I mean plants take the nutrients, the soil nutrients that the crops for food required
35:59 to do well on the soil.
36:01 So it cuts across almost all the mining areas in the country that people, farmers themselves
36:07 are actually finding weird that all of a sudden they find themselves facing low yield on cropping
36:16 season and also animals are dying.
36:20 The animals eat the vegetation.
36:22 The pasture that the animals depend on are all actually sucking these metals from the
36:27 soils and the soils also are leading with these through the water, both underground
36:33 water flow and surface water runoff that come to deposit, wash the heavy metals from site
36:41 downstream to farmland areas and all of the soils on the surface are poisoned with these
36:47 heavy metals and the plants actually suck the heavy metals from the soil and the animals
36:52 eat the plants.
36:54 And so we had reported cases from farmers that for whatever reason, you know sometimes
37:00 superstitions, people believe that other people are actually poisoning their animals.
37:07 Lo and behold they have come to find that through our studies that look, it is as a
37:12 result of heavy metal contamination on the soils and on the lands.
37:16 A lot of lands are becoming barren now because the original native vegetative cover is all
37:22 disappearing as a result of contamination of the soils on the surface of the land.
37:27 And you not only put that to crops and farmlands and as I actually mentioned on trees.
37:35 Now look, if you go to most of these areas, even buildings, those days you would have
37:40 blocks that are used to construct buildings and you would find about 50 years old buildings
37:47 and the blocks are still neat and intact.
37:49 Now you plaster a wall, a fresh wall that has been constructed for just a year, you
37:56 come to find that the whole wall is wearing down.
37:59 What is happening?
38:00 Because all the soils have actually been contaminated with heavy metals that they are no longer
38:05 able to hold together cement and other…
38:09 They are no longer viable for all of those…
38:11 For construction.
38:12 Yeah.
38:13 So it's as a result of the heavy metal concentrations.
38:18 So we are getting to in this country and you know Elizabeth, I have heard of studies and
38:24 you know, read different documents that point to the fact that interestingly while the South
38:29 Americans, you know there was, I don't know whether it was swollen shoot or one of those
38:33 diseases, but they wiped out cocoa farms in Brazil.
38:37 You know Brazil at a point was the second largest producer of cocoa and then it slipped
38:42 all of those in South America.
38:44 Now the South Americans are heavily getting into it.
38:47 Their advantage, swathes of land, fertile soil, large hectares and they're going into
38:54 it and they've been catching up over the last 10, 6 years coming forward.
39:00 We are at risk and we don't even realize it.
39:02 Come to Ghana and because of the soil losing its quality on the back of Gallamcea and all
39:07 of that, a farmer can now farm an entire acre and what they get from it is infinitesimal
39:14 compared to maybe how many years or decades ago and we are sitting down.
39:20 So it's destroying everything and even our cash crop is also suffering.
39:25 You know it struck me, I want to run this by you.
39:28 In the documentary there is a Gallamcea who somewhere in there, you know, he is drinking
39:35 the same water he is polluting and he says, "yebe wuntiyena".
39:40 How much more education do we need on this for people to realize that we are literally
39:47 killing ourselves?
39:48 Yes, thank you for the question.
39:50 At a point when people or some people have become so adamant, I think then it borders
40:00 on criminality.
40:02 Because it's one thing destroying yourself, it's another destroying someone else and a
40:08 whole suite of people who have nothing to do with your self-imposed destruction.
40:19 So we have to be able to differentiate between the two.
40:22 There are so many people who through no fault of theirs happen to live in these communities
40:28 and they are virtually at the mercy of these Gallamceas.
40:33 Not just the Gallamceas, even the legalized small scale miners.
40:40 Because they don't do anything different from what these guys are doing.
40:44 And many of these people are helpless.
40:47 They don't even know who to go and report to.
40:52 The security service, the police in those communities are compromised.
40:58 The DCs, everybody along the chain of leadership in these communities, most of them are compromised.
41:06 So we need to be able to isolate those who have decided to go on a suicide mission.
41:12 Probably put them all in a particular place and let them do whatever they want to do with
41:17 themselves.
41:18 But for the sake of the population.
41:22 What do you mean by that, put them all in a particular place?
41:24 Is it incarcerate them or is it put them in one place and say, okay, you can destroy this
41:29 place but you destroy yourselves as well.
41:32 How exactly, what exactly do you mean?
41:35 Yes, someone like that young man, I don't know.
41:38 I don't know what else you would tell this young man to let him change his mind.
41:46 I had the privilege of talking to one young man once I started this.
41:52 And he had brought three of his brothers to come and join him in this gold smeltering
41:58 business.
41:59 And when I spoke to him, ran him down all the things that he's doing to himself, he
42:04 stopped.
42:05 He said he was using whatever little money he has to go and get a taxi and then run it.
42:10 He sent his brothers home and all that.
42:13 Some people can be changed.
42:15 But those who have put themselves like kamikazes, we let them.
42:22 Maybe either they get incarcerated or we create, we carve out a space for them and leave them
42:28 all in there to do whatever they want to do with themselves.
42:32 But the majority of our people shouldn't suffer because some people just will do anything
42:38 for money.
42:39 And the sad thing to me is the real people who enjoy the money from our gold are living
42:44 in penthouses in Dubai.
42:46 Exactly.
42:47 That is what hurts me.
42:48 Because look at the guy that was being interviewed by Rastus.
42:54 This guy that has done galamsey for so many years and now almost about to die has nothing
43:01 to show for it.
43:03 So I don't know what will make someone decide that even though this will kill me, I'm going
43:07 to do it because I will get a few cities to buy food to eat today.
43:12 But some too will tell you, you know, you remember the Ankuranza incident where some
43:16 police officers were seen begging some alleged galamseyers and were told that one of those
43:22 you know, in the footage actually owns a multi bedroom entity that he even runs as a hotel
43:32 or something of the sort.
43:33 The point is we shouldn't collectively suffer for someone's singular greed.
43:40 And my problem is the fact that like Doc in the studio mentioned, these people cannot
43:46 purchase mercury.
43:49 There are political figures involved.
43:51 Some of them will be able to get the mercury for whoever is running things on the ground
43:56 for them.
43:57 Erastus himself will confirm that there are instances where you go to certain places where
44:02 the IMCIM back then was, you know, and you'll get a call.
44:07 No, this place, a person is involved.
44:10 Police move out and all of that.
44:12 Our political actors, our leaders, some of our chiefs and all of that are in bed in cahoots
44:19 with these people.
44:21 What I mean, sometimes I just get to the point where I think it may take something really
44:26 radical to stop this.
44:29 And Elizabeth, we've been told that even if we stopped all of this today, our water
44:33 bodies, it will take us about a century for them to get anything near to what they were
44:39 before.
44:40 And we're still going on.
44:42 Growing up, some of the textbooks I would see, you would see the river and Cobra, the
44:45 river Pra and they were all look at them today.
44:48 I mean, what will it take to bring this menace to an end?
44:52 Because obviously I'm putting my presidency on the line has not yielded anything.
45:00 It's leadership.
45:01 It all comes back to leadership.
45:03 Without the right leadership, we will keep going around in circles.
45:09 If we really, really, really want to stop this, we can't stop it.
45:15 But without the right leadership, we are not going to get anywhere.
45:19 Because even the Awulai of Aksin, Awulai Atibu Kusu said during the Kundun Festival, he made
45:27 a statement that the politicians have hijacked this such that even when you arrest somebody
45:36 and you make all that noise about them destroying your land and you get a call that way, so
45:43 let them.
45:44 So, so, so, so there is so much, so many interested parties, so many people who don't want this
45:53 country to do well, hiding behind these people and really, really responsible for the destruction.
46:00 With the right leadership that says, I want my country back.
46:03 I want us to be able to get a hold on this.
46:06 They'll be able to arrest the main kingpins behind the destruction.
46:10 Once you cut the head, the tail and the body will not survive.
46:15 Then the people who genuinely need employment, we can always find something different for
46:20 them to do.
46:21 The land that we are destroying can be a source of producing most of these spices and other
46:30 things that the world needs.
46:32 Coconuts is now one of the big things that people in the Western world are craving for.
46:38 There are so many things we can do with our land.
46:41 With the right leadership that says, no matter what, we are not destroying ourselves.
46:46 Things will change.
46:48 And our chiefs as well.
46:49 So now even with the Nzema, the Amanzule one, like I have, we have told our chiefs, our
46:57 Nzema ulis, and we are expecting them, we are expecting them, the Nzema Mali Traditional
47:01 Council, to come up with a statement.
47:04 It's about time they came together, stood up and spoke up for their own land.
47:09 Otherwise, you know, there's no reason why the people should become poodles to whichever
47:14 political regime is in place.
47:16 These guys come in only four years at a time, and we have to vote them to power.
47:21 So you, the chiefs, you are our nananum, our kings.
47:24 You are the guys, you are the people, the men and women who must hold on to your communities.
47:33 You know?
47:34 So there can be a way around it, if we genuinely have the right leadership to direct this.
47:42 You know, there was such a time when calling yourself Ghanaian came with a lot of pride.
47:49 It still does in a way, but you look at what we are doing to ourselves.
47:56 For you, Doc, this is how far we've come.
47:59 I do not know what it will take, because nothing has worked.
48:03 I want to refresh our memories back to the days of the colonial rule.
48:08 In 1933, the British rule actually banned the use of mercury.
48:16 And these are some of the things they envisaged, and that brought the ban of mercury.
48:21 And this law has been repealed in 1989.
48:25 And we only allow the use of mercury for gold processing, but it's more scale mining.
48:31 So you say 1933, that's 90 years ago.
48:34 Yes.
48:35 They banned it.
48:36 Today, yes, we are in different ways allowing it to take a foothold.
48:42 No, it was repealed by the PNDC law 217.
48:45 I don't disagree.
48:46 I'm saying that through our actions and inactions, we're allowing it to take a foothold.
48:50 It's not about the banning.
48:51 You mentioned how difficult it is to secure mercury.
48:53 Yes.
48:54 But through our actions and inactions, is it in use or not?
48:57 It is.
48:58 Is it destroying our environment or not?
48:59 It is.
49:00 So I'm trying to suggest that the first step I feel now, there may be repercussions to
49:07 that, but we just have to ban mercury for now completely, because the law currently
49:12 allows the use of mercury.
49:14 Quick question.
49:15 The major mining entities, they don't use that, do they?
49:19 The large scale mining companies don't use mercury.
49:20 Exactly.
49:21 It's the small scale ones that have to use it to, you know.
49:25 So if we ban it, then of course, the entire value chain goes.
49:29 No, it doesn't really go.
49:31 That is backed by law.
49:32 Yes, of course, the value chain for the trade and use of mercury for all processing can
49:40 actually be deleted from the system.
49:43 There are other equally viable options for all processing without the use of mercury.
49:48 They only tell you that mercury is the most efficient among all.
49:52 There are other metals that are equally poisonous but are not actually atrocious in use now.
49:58 That can be used.
49:59 We have also discovered-
50:00 Maybe you shouldn't mention their names to give people any ideas.
50:03 No.
50:04 So, and the technologies are also now available for, I mean, for the processes of gold without
50:12 actually the use of mercury.
50:13 I have done work with the, for the Minamata Convention, which seeks to actually discourage
50:19 the use of mercury.
50:21 And we've been actually simulating and discussing technologies that can actually be used.
50:27 And that's why I strongly suggest that, look, it is about time that governments and government,
50:34 now if you say government, we are literally referring to politicians who are actually
50:38 giving this all kinds of, I mean, demoralizing this from citizenship, right, and patriotism
50:45 in the fight of the use of mercury and also in the fight against illegal mining.
50:51 But if the true media channels can actually advocate the complete ban of mercury out of
51:00 the system to repeal the 1989 PNDC law 217, it is better for us.
51:06 Then we can begin to head for natural recuperation and remediation techniques of the polluted
51:13 and already contaminated water bodies and soils.
51:15 That is the best way I think we can go about this.
51:19 Yep.
51:20 Well, thank you for those thoughts.
51:22 I'll give each one of you some 20 seconds to wrap.
51:25 Elizabeth, any final thoughts you'd like to share?
51:29 Just on Dr's point, I thought we were signatories to the Minamata Convention.
51:34 So why we'd still allow mercury into our country and for it to become a big issue, it all boils
51:42 down to the enforcement side of things.
51:47 In the country, we have very, very beautiful lofty laws in our books, but do we really
51:52 enforce them?
51:54 That's another topic.
51:57 What last words do I have?
51:59 We keep saying that if this particular expose doesn't get Ghanaians to sit up, then nothing
52:06 will.
52:07 Then we go to the next, we go to the next.
52:10 Erastos continues to do this wonderful service to our country that the EPAs, the various
52:20 organizations and arms of state should be doing.
52:23 Now what do we do with this information?
52:26 My plea is that we make this available in all the various languages.
52:32 And we get GTV to really get some rights to show this in every community in the country.
52:40 Show the pictures as they are.
52:42 Show that little baby that couldn't see the light of day with the six fingers, no
52:47 honors, and all of that.
52:49 Let people see that a mother died because her placenta was virtually broken down by
52:55 all the mercury concentration inside her.
52:57 Let people know that when there's Ghalam Say in their communities, it's not just the
53:02 people in the trenches that are killing themselves.
53:05 The entire community is at risk.
53:10 Thank you, Elizabeth.
53:11 Whenever I have these conversations, they just dampen my mood, honestly.
53:16 They leave me...
53:18 Final words, please, Shorta, if you can.
53:22 Let me quickly say that Ghana has just submitted our national action plan to the Minamata
53:28 Convention Secretariat.
53:29 Action plan.
53:30 Yeah, national action plan.
53:31 National action plan.
53:32 That's right.
53:33 Action plan.
53:34 Yes, please.
53:35 Okay.
53:36 And through the Minister of Environment, our actions are actually yet to be implemented.
53:40 I'm yet to see that.
53:42 But I would also want to bring our minds back to what pertains in DR Congo.
53:49 In DR Congo, it's a mess situation where no one cares.
53:54 Anyone who owns a concession, illegal mining is outrageous.
53:59 We don't want to get there.
54:00 So that's why I say let's refresh.
54:02 Let's take our minds to what's going on in DR Congo, and we will advise ourselves.
54:07 You were telling me of what we have seen in Liberia.
54:12 All of these are just a conglomerate of hazard that is going on in DR Congo because the issue
54:21 of illegal mining and the use of mercury has escalated to levels that no one can control.
54:27 And the government has actually given up.
54:31 There's no way any political party, whether they are interested or not, can actually manage
54:37 the situation in DR Congo.
54:39 We don't want to get there in Ghana.
54:41 Thank you.
54:42 Ghana, no.
54:43 Ebeyea, Ehehweng, Yanara, Minewara.
54:44 It's our job to do, and if we will not do it, I guess we should not complain someday.
54:57 If the very things we dread happen, hopefully we don't get there.
55:02 Hopefully not.
55:03 Well, those who joined us for this conversation, Dr. Abdul Wadud Momen.
55:07 He's a senior lecturer, School of Mines, University of Energy and Natural Resources.
55:12 We also had Elizabeth Aluwa Vah, Executive Director, Ghana Environmental Advocacy Group.
55:20 Thank you so much for joining this conversation.
55:21 Up next, the spouses of heads of missions in Ghana and international organizations are
55:27 getting ready to host their very first diplomatic fashion gala in efforts to support a range
55:33 of local charities that benefit Ghanaians in urgent need.
55:36 We're talking about the 21st day of October, Saturday.
55:40 Well, we'll be giving you quite some insight into that as we host the guests for that conversation.
55:45 Bernice Aboubedou Lansa is up next on The AM Show.
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