.jpeg)
As protests took place in Accra to highlight the devastation, Ghana's President Nana Akufo-Addo responded last week by ordering the deployment of naval boats "to ensure the immediate cessation of all mining activities, legal or illegal, in and around these water bodies".
.jpeg)
But some senior officials in the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) said they did not expect a major crackdown, as many of their supporters in mining districts were involved in galamsey - and the party could not risk losing their votes in the December general election.
The popularity of galamsey was borne out by a survey conducted by WaterAid in communities involved in illegal mining in Ghana’s Upper East Region, particularly the Bongo and Bawku West districts.
More than 75% of those surveyed saw the practice as a lucrative source of income despite 97% of them acknowledging it harmed the environment and water sources.
"Alarmingly, 79% reported health issues, such as chest pains, directly linked to their work in illegal mining," WaterAid added.
When President Akufo-Addo first took office in 2017, he acknowledged that some security personnel, businessmen and politicians were involved in galamsey.
He vowed "not just to stop it, to reclaim the land, to let our rivers work again", but also to help "all the abled-bodied young men involved in this activity to find an alternative livelihood".
With Akufo-Addo due to step down at the end of his two terms, his critics say that he failed to fulfil his promise and the problem rather got worse during his tenure, jeopardising - as he put it in 2017 - "the very survival of our nation".
