Galamsey is our source of livelihood – Asiakwa Youth
Illegal damond and gold winners popularly known as galamsey operators, at Asiakwa in the East Akim District have stated that they are into the outlawed activity because good jobs are hard to find.
According to them, they could hardly imagine what could force them out of a job that provided each miner at least GH¢60.00 per day which was far above the GH¢3.77 daily minimum wage.
Speaking to the Ghana News Agency, Nana Owusu Agyeman, the leader of the group, said the Government should give them legal backing so that they could work and pay taxes for the development of the country.
“The Government should also think of opening a gold refinery here so that our minerals can be refined in Ghana to add value to it and sell it abroad.
“As I talk to you now, there are foreigners in most of the hotels in the town waiting to buy the gold we mine and we sell to them at a cheap price because we cannot refine them.”
The illegal miners in the area had tagged themselves as “Bold Mining Company” because they had on their own found jobs to do which, according to them, they ought to do with boldness.
“Our main concern is that the government must help us by sanitizing the work for us. We have created employment here and as I am talking to you, we have over 2,000 workers and every one of them goes home with not less than GH¢ 60.00 per day”, according to some of the workers.
In an interview with Frank Owusu Aboagye, the Assemblyman for the area, it was revealed that almost all the youth in the area were now engaged in the galamsey business and anytime he went to call them for a communal labour, they threaten to beat him up.
Mr. Aboagye also alleged that some of the miners are ex-convicts who joined the activity straight from prisons.
He, however, expressed worry that the situation had made the youth to become affluent in a matter of short time and due to that they no longer respect elders and that they also engaged in all sorts of social and moral vices.
“It is a problem for the Akyem land and Ghana as a whole”.
He called for immediate intervention by the government so as to save the youth of the country from going wayward and also saving the land from depletion.
“If the youth who are the future leaders go wayward and the land which will provide food for us is spoilt, what then happens to Ghana in future or to our next generations?” he asked.
The GNA noted that the Birim River which had been polluted by galamsey activities was a source of drinking water for the people.
The assemblyman also confirmed that the galamsey operators wash their hands and feet in the water and also defecate in it.
“It poses danger to the health of the residents and even to these illegal miners”.
Source: GNA