The joint Free the Citizens and Stop Galamsey demonstrations have begun in the capital Accra as demonstrators push for an answer from government to their pressing questions.
The demonstration is the first in a planned three-day protest to mount pressure on the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) government to fight the galamsey menace.
Water bodies all across Ghana have been engulfed with dirty brown water laced with chemicals from galamsey sites all across the interior of the country.
Aside from the destruction of rivers, forest reserves have also been encroached upon by illegal miners heightening the scale of environmental destruction the country is facing.