Imagine waking up on a hectic Monday morning, ready to face the day, and having your bathing water filled with phosphate, lead, copper, and iron, all in a yellowish form. This pollution index runs through Ghana’s Southwestern river system, a system that constitutes about 22% of the three-drainage system in the country. Together, River Pra and Ankobra form the two major estuarine systems in Southwestern Ghana. It contributes to the daily livelihoods of coastal communities around and part of the major rivers that discharge into the Gulf of Guinea in the Western region of Ghana. The methods used in this activity have severe effects on all fronts. The use of mercury in mining causes several different health problems, including neurological disorders and kidney diseases. Massive amounts of stones are crushed into sand and washed at the sites, which takes water from nearby river systems and deposits waste water back into them, using mercury. Besides mercury-poisoning, lead, zinc, and copper pollute people living around mines. Ironically, Ghana was one of 18 countries to sign the Minamata Convention on Mercury at the UN General Assembly in 2014, to minimise mercury exposure to the population. A decade on, here we are. It’s a shame.
Illegal mining in Ghana has been a major contributor to deforestation, polluting the water, air, and soil and devastating farmlands. It has also contributed to an increased number of school dropouts in mining communities, posing challenges to sustainable development. To top it, it’s a dangerous field of work. Illegal Miners stay underground for days/months, dying due to unsafe use of dynamite or flooding. Series of deaths that don’t even make it to the news because of fear of prosecution or disgrace from the deceased’s family. It’s a cut-throat industry that benefits the rich and greedy at the expense of innocent lives. For this, our brothers and sisters decided to let their voices be heard through a protest, and in return, they have been arrested for demanding clean water and good governance. It’s been two weeks, since the arrest of 53 protesters, two weeks of unlawful acts from Ghana’s law enforcers. Protestors who were detained after the demonstrations were transferred from their initial remand locations to undisclosed police facilities without prior notice or explanation to either the protesters or their legal representatives. Cedric Bansah, one of the creative community’s loyal members along with other creatives, protestors and innocent bystanders, have been charged with Conspiracy, Unlawful Assembly, Causing Unlawful Damage, Offensive Conduct Conducive to the Breach of Peace, Assault on a Public Officer, and Defacement of Public Notice. Footage from Joy News Tv from news coverage proves otherwise but this is the reality now, pregnant protesters and bystanders with health implications are being denied bail and medicine by law enforcers. Same country well known for its hospitability.
As expected, my disappointment towards the government is a default. Still, traditional media and some of our biggest entertainers in the creative industry with a mass reach have set a new low for their disappointment gauge. You tune in to most of these traditional media outlets with zero knowledge of what’s going on on the grounds, and you’d think these protesters are murderers on the run. Media manipulation is at an all-time high. Celebrities have always had a strong influence on the lives of people. Increased use of social media in the last decade has allowed celebrities to share their daily affairs with the world, making them a humanised weapon that people look up to for their stance, even on political standings. But these hypocrites decided to be in bed with political parties, and now that things are south, the same people who voiced out against the opposition government are currently mute simply because they have their heads in the covers of the political elite. Mind you, these are the same celebrities that will beg their fans to buy tickets for their concerts and stream their music and patronise their works in the coming months. A shameful lot, that they are. The main reason why I’m totally against Celebrity Political Endorsement, if you are not clean at heart, don’t get into this nasty business.
