The Ghana Agricultural Workers Union (GAWU) says Ghana is committing what it described as environmental genocide by the illegal mining also known as galamsey activities in the country.
According to GAWU, the development can be largely blamed on galamsey activities across the country.
This follows the increasing prices of food items on the market in the country.
Speaking to the media in Accra, General Secretary of the Ghana Agricultural Workers Union, Edward Kareweh advised the government to check the menace that is affecting food production in the country.
“The river bands are not encroached on by farmers but by galamseyers and they even go into the middle of the river to mount their equipment. To loot everything and kill aquatic life. I am saying we are committing environmental genocide because you and I when we go to those areas we go with our sachet and bottled water which we call mineral water and drink. What about our friends the insects, the grasshoppers, the snacks, and other living organisms that go to the river to drink?
“When they drink that water they will die just like when we drink that water we will die. So we are killing them permanently and we are also destroying the forest which used to be good habitant. So it’s just the environmental genocide we are committing and that will bite all of us back,” Mr. Kareweh predicted.
He continued: “The recent findings show that children around those areas are born with unusual deformities. If you look at the plantations that are around they are encroaching on them. Farmers need fresh land to add more acers so that that they can expand. This time they don’t have the opportunity to expand but even the existing land size that they are being encroached by galamsey.”
