Mourning Ghana – A People So Apathetic, They Seemingly Are Prepared To Die, Rather Than Complain, Agitate Or Enforce Laws
Fellow Ghanaians,
Mourning Ghana – A People So Apathetic, They Seemingly Are Prepared To Die, Rather Than Complain, Agitate Or Enforce Laws
This is Eco-Conscious Citizens‘ final message to social and traditional media before we disengage from media engagement for a week of mourning.
Over recent years, Erastus Asare Donkor has produced documentaries exposing irresponsible, illegal mining and its devastating impact on health and the environment. Yet citizens’ awareness of, and response to, this ongoing ecocide remains minimal.
The recent Ghana Water announcement of a potential 281% water tariff hike, blamed on excessive turbidity caused by illegal mining, briefly stirred concern – largely financial, and not environmental or health-related. News of water plants closing attracted relatively little reaction among city-dwellers, although plans that will hit their pockets had them realising just for a hot minute that what happens in the hinterlands has a direct impact on them.
Last week, two state agencies reported high mercury and other toxic metals in kontomire and other staple foods. Despite commendable media coverage, public response was fairly muted.
For years our executive director, Awula Serwah, and others have warned of the existential threat due to our poisoned water bodies and farmlands. These studies only confirmed the crisis, yet citizens barely reacted to evidence that their daily foods carry life-threatening toxins. Where was the uproar of a people concerned about their very existence, due to the prevalence of contaminated foods and other products on the market?
This reflects a troubling complacency. Few act to change things, as seen in the poor turnout at this month’s Democracy Hub #StopGalamseyNow vigil and march. Some citizens refuse to join such activities simply because of misplaced partisan loyalties. Until we adopt an independent, Ghana-first mindset, wrongdoing will persist.
Noise pollution is another example: communities tolerate excessive noise from churches, event centres, bars, bolla taxis, parties and funerals. Those who complain are often dismissed as “party poopers”, “agents of the Devi”, or interferring someone’s livelihood”, while authorities rarely enforce laws.
With no sanctions, impunity flourishes – whether it’s noise, illegal construction on Ramsar sites, or developers ignoring “Stop Work” or kiosk-owners ignoring “Remove” orders marked in red paint. Enforcement often comes only under political pressure or when citizens persist relentlessly.
Eco-Conscious Citizens continues its advocacy, but change will remain limited without firm action from above. Government still resists declaring a state of emergency against the environmental terrorists poisoning our water, farmlands, and forest reserves.
Security Zones have now been declared – whatever the terminology, what matters is that the security forces must be properly resourced and armed with proper intelligence in order to properly secure our water bodies and forest reserves, and remove illegal miners and their equipment.
We await evidence of sustained successes from NAIMOS (National Anti-Illegal Mining Operations Secretariat) in protecting the environment in these security zones.
Eco-Conscious Citizens
https://Linktr.ee/EcoConsciousCitizens
