The Ghana Civil Society Organisations (CSO) platform on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) has joined the Organised Labour to demand immediate actions to end illegal mining which is threatening the attainment of all SDGs.
The platform called on the President, Nana Akufo-Addo, as former Co-Chair of the Eminent Group of Sustainable Development Goals Advocates to among other things, withdraw licenses for mining concessions along water bodies and the immediate revocation of the Environmental Protection (Mining in Forest Reserves) Regulations, 2023 (L.I. 2462).
The Society also called for the withdrawal of licenses for reconnaissance, prospecting, exploration and or mining in forest and protected reserves, enforcement of illegal mining ban in water bodies and forest reserves as well as enforcement of the buffer zone policy of no mining within 100 meters water bodies.
Speaking at a press conference, the Co-Chair, of CSO Platform on SDGs, Mrs. Beauty Emefa Narteh, said without combating galamsey and other forms of illegal and irresponsible mining, Ghana will not be able to achieve the SDGs by 2030 which is barely six years away.
She noted that the menace will further remove Ghana from the conversation on the Pact for the Future which includes a Global Digital Compact and a Declaration on Future Generations which was adopted at the UN in September 2024.
She said the unchecked destruction caused by galamsey threatens the livelihoods of rural communities, public health, food security, and the sustainability of our natural resources.
“As a platform representing the collective voice of civil society across Ghana, the Ghana CSO Platform on SDGs is compelled to stand in solidarity with fellow citizens and organised labour in this critical national cause,” she added.
The government, on October 3, 2024, engaged organised labour at the Jubilee House over calls to take action on the menace of illegal small-scale mining. Despite government assurances to take action on the situation, organised labour said it would proceed with industrial action on October 10, until the government implement immediate actions to remedy the situation.
Dr Kenneth Ashigbey, the Convener of the Ghana Coalition Against Galamsey said the government so far had not shown enough commitment to resolving the galamsey crisis.
He indicated that the coalition will on October 10, begin the wearing of red armbands in solidarity with organised labour to protest against galamsey.
