THE RIVERS DON’T KNOW NPP FROM NDC: GHANA’S GALAMSEY HYPOCRISY MUST END
By Barima Nana Ntiamoah, · 2 October 2026 · Economy & the Cedi
What profit is there in extracting gold from beneath our soil if, in the process, we destroy the water above it, the food that grows from it, and the health and livelihoods of the people who must inherit the land? Ghana's illegal mining crisis, commonly called galamsey, can no longer be treated merely as a mining problem. It is a water-security crisis, an agricultural crisis, a public-health challenge, an economic dilemma and, fundamentally, a test of governance and political accountability. A NATION RICH IN GOLD, BUT AT WHAT COST? Gold remains enormously important to Ghana's economy. Official figures indicate that Ghana earned approximately US$20 billion from gold exports in 2025, with artisanal and small-scale gold exports contributing more than US$10 billion.But there is another balance sheet we rarely discuss with the same enthusiasm: polluted rivers, destroyed cocoa farms, contaminated soils, damaged forests, increased water-treatment costs, land reclamation and potential long-term health consequences. The Environmental Protection Agency reported that satellite analysis had identified more than 670 square kilometres of land destroyed by illegal mining. At the Daboase Water Treatment Plant, raw-water turbidity that the facility was originally designed to handle at around 100 NTU had reportedly reached approximately 7,000 NTU.Scientific research has also documented serious sedimentation and contamination risks involving mercury, arsenic and lead in mining-affected areas. So Ghana must confront an uncomfortable question:Are we prepared to become a country rich in gold but poor in drinkable water? WHEN GALAMSEY ENTERS OUR FARMS The destruction does not end at the riverbank. COCOBOD reported that approximately 30,000 hectares of cocoa farms had been destroyed by illegal mining and related activities by the end of 2024, with another 50,000 hectares considered at risk.Cocoa is not simply another crop. It supports rural families, employment, foreign-exchange earnings and an industry that has sustained Ghana for generations. Research from the University of Ghana has also identified elevated concentrations of potentially toxic metals in soil, vegetation, water and food samples from former mining communities, including elevated lead and mercury concentrations in cassava and plantain grown on abandoned mining fields. This means galamsey is no longer merely about losing farmland. It raises questions about food safety, agricultural productivity and the health of communities.Gold may be extracted in weeks. A destroyed ecosystem can take generations to restore. THE ECONOMIC CONTRADICTION Gold brings foreign exchange, but what is its true economic value if Ghana must subsequently spend enormous resources reclaiming land, restoring forests and treating increasingly polluted water? When mining contaminates a river supplying thousands of people, the miner may capture the private profit while the environmental and treatment costs are transferred to society.That is not merely an environmental failure. It is an economic contradiction. And this is where the issue inevitably becomes political. GALAMSEY AND THE POLITICS OF ACCOUNTABILITY The Mahama administration did not inherit a country without an anti-galamsey framework in January 2025.It inherited almost eight years of institutions, legislation, enforcement mechanisms and policy interventions developed under the Akufo-Addo administration. Beginning in 2017, the Akufo-Addo government imposed a temporary nationwide ban on small-scale mining while attempting to sanitise the sector. It established Operation Vanguard, initially deploying hundreds of military and police personnel to mining areas. There was the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Illegal Mining, followed by Operation Halt and Operation Halt II, involving security forces particularly around water bodies and forest areas. The Minerals and Mining (Amendment) Act, 2019, Act 995 strengthened penalties for illegal mining and related offences. The government introduced Community Mining Schemes as regulated alternatives to illegal mining and established District Mining Committees to strengthen local supervision. It introduced mercury-free processing technology, including the commissioning of 100 Gold Kacha machines in 2022. In 2021, it launched the National Alternative Employment and Livelihood Programme, incorporating land reclamation, agriculture and alternative employment in mining communities. These interventions establish an important historical fact: The current government did not begin Ghana's fight against galamsey from zero. But acknowledging these interventions does not mean pretending they succeeded. They did not.Illegal mining remained a serious national problem when Akufo-Addo left office. Independent research has identified shortcomings in implementation, enforcement and institutional coordination during the period. The NPP administration must therefore answer for the gap between the scale of its interventions and the environmental results ultimately achieved. But that creates another question:What standard should apply to those who fiercely condemned those measures in opposition and subsequently inherited them in government? WHEN OPPOSITION RHETORIC MEETS POWER The NDC was among the fiercest critics of the Akufo-Addo government's handling of galamsey.Its representatives argued that arrests, military operations and government programmes were inadequate while politically connected individuals allegedly involved in illegal mining remained untouched. In opposition, NDC National Communications Officer Sammy Gyamfi described the government's renewed anti-galamsey effort as potentially a "mirage" unless politically connected actors and security personnel accused of involvement were prosecuted. John Dramani Mahama campaigned on stronger action. He pledged that government appointees would not be permitted to engage in mining, that officials or party members violating mining laws would face prosecution, and that mining in water bodies and forest reserves would be confronted. The NDC's 2024 manifesto also promised restoration of lands and water bodies damaged by galamsey.Those commitments helped create enormous expectations.Now comes the test that confronts every opposition party when it assumes power:Can the standards demanded from others survive the transition from opposition to government? THE MAHAMA GOVERNMENT'S RECORD SO FAR It would be inaccurate to say that the current administration has taken no action. The Mahama government has pursued enforcement operations, licensing reforms, stakeholder engagement, reclamation and alternative-livelihood initiatives. It introduced the Blue Water Guards and established the National Anti-Illegal Mining Operations Secretariat, NAIMOS.By March 2026, NAIMOS reported 237 arrests, 94 excavators seized or immobilised and 2,647 changfang platforms destroyed across 122 operations since July 2025. The government has also revoked hundreds of small-scale mining licences it says were irregularly acquired and changed the legal framework concerning mining in forest reserves.These measures should be acknowledged. But government action is not synonymous with government success.If military operations were inadequate under Akufo-Addo, enforcement operations cannot automatically become sufficient because another administration deploys them. If confiscating excavators was not proof of success yesterday, confiscating excavators cannot become the ultimate measurement of success today.If politically exposed persons were expected to face investigation and prosecution under the NPP, that same standard must apply under the NDC whenever credible evidence exists. Most importantly, if polluted rivers represented governmental failure under Akufo-Addo, those same polluted rivers must remain grounds for demanding accountability under Mahama.This is not partisan politics.It is consistency. MEASURE THE RIVER, NOT THE PRESS CONFERENCE Government should ultimately be assessed by environmental outcomes. Publish regular, independently verifiable turbidity readings for the Pra, Birim, Ankobra and Offin rivers and let Ghanaians see whether they are improving. Publish the number of hectares destroyed and genuinely reclaimed.Maintain transparent records of excavators and other heavy machinery seized during operations.Publish arrests, prosecutions, convictions and acquittals. Track reclaimed agricultural land and demonstrate whether farmers are actually returning to production.And follow the money.The young Ghanaian standing waist-deep in muddy water with a shovel is only the most visible end of a much larger economic chain. Illegal mining requires financing, machinery, fuel, land access, transportation and buyers. Ultimately, the gold must enter a market. Ghana therefore cannot defeat galamsey merely by chasing miners from one riverbank to another.The state must attack the financial, logistical and commercial architecture that makes illegal mining profitable.Where evidence establishes wrongdoing, accountability must reach miners, financiers, concession holders, companies, officials and politically connected persons without regard to party affiliation. THE RIVER HAS NO POLITICAL PARTY Nature does not recognise our political colours. The Pra River does not ask whether the person poisoning it belongs to NPP or NDC. Mercury does not distinguish between government and opposition.A cocoa tree does not know who occupies Jubilee House.A destroyed farm does not regenerate after an election. And a child exposed to contaminated food or water cannot wait for another manifesto. The Akufo-Addo administration must be judged against the substantial measures it introduced and the environmental outcomes it ultimately failed to achieve. The Mahama administration must equally be judged against what it inherited, what it has introduced and, importantly, the higher expectations created by its criticisms and promises while seeking political power. Ghana cannot continue a cycle where today's opposition condemns galamsey, wins power tomorrow and begins explaining its complexity while our rivers continue to suffer. WHAT WILL WE LEAVE BEHIND? Our ancestors did not leave us only gold.They left us rivers, forests and fertile agricultural land.Gold is valuable because human beings assign value to it.Water is valuable because without it human beings cannot live. Gold can generate foreign exchange for a generation. Properly managed land and water can sustain a civilisation.So the ultimate question is not how many excavators were seized, how many soldiers were deployed or whether NPP or NDC can produce the better galamsey slogan. The questions are simpler:Are our rivers getting cleaner?Are our farms being protected? Are powerful offenders facing the law?Can the Ghanaian child born today inherit drinkable water and productive land tomorrow?If the answers remain uncertain, our work is nowhere near finished.If the price of today's gold is tomorrow's poisoned water, destroyed farmland, unsafe food and damaged communities, then the true cost of that gold has never appeared in Ghana's export figures.History will not judge us simply by how much gold we found beneath our soil.It will judge us by what we were willing to destroy to get it. For God and Country, Barima Nana Ntiamoah