The youth of Akyem Asuom, a community in the Kwaebibirem district of the Eastern Region, have expressed their frustration over the destruction caused by illegal mining, commonly known as 'galamsey.' The ongoing devastation has led them to take matters into their own hands by confronting the miners.
Last week, in a bold move, the youth stormed a galamsey site and forced the miners to cease operations.
The Kontihene of the area, Nana Boadi Ampomenim Abodade III, revealed that despite numerous written complaints to security agencies and the Minerals Commission, there has been no official response to their pleas for intervention.
During an interview on The Point of View with Bernard Avle, Dominic Ofori Forson, the incoming Asafoatse of the community, highlighted the severe impact of illegal mining.
He explained that the open pits left by the miners now pose a significant threat to the community.
Forson also noted that the land, once rich with palm trees, has been degraded by mining activities, leaving it in a far worse condition than before. "This place wasn't like this… Let's say two years ago when we started with this galamsey.
Probably it's been four years, but we didn't start with what we see now.
We started by using a machine to detect if we had gold in the land.
It was started by the people of the town before we moved on with experience.
There were palm trees here, and our elders told us that some people had come with documents saying that they could mine in our town.
So we met. "The residents of this town are predominantly farmers, so the illiteracy rate is higher in Asuom.
We can't tell if the indigenes of the town saw the papers or not.
We just realized after some time that they had brought excavators and trommels.
That was when we realized that they were mining in the waterbody we drink from." "We, the youth, stopped them.
When we look behind us, there are pits over there.
We don't know anything about the mining.
You said you have documentation, but we know nothing about it. "So when we saw the pits around and the houses nearby, it was a threat to the community.
So we had to ensure that they stopped the work and see to the arrangements they had with the town because we won't sit here for money to come to the town and finish digging the money for the town to remain the same. "So we decided to let them stop and check the documents they are mining in the right place.
That is why [we stopped them]," Forson stated.