Why Ghana cannot defeat galamsey

More than 60% of water bodies polluted (Water Resources Commission assessments); turbidity five times treatable limits and a warning of water imports by 2030 (Ghana Water Company); 44 of 288 forest reserves degraded, nine of them no-go zones (Ministry of Lands, 2025); the world's fastest rise in primary forest loss in 2018 (Global Forest Watch); roughly 19,000 hectares of cocoa lost (COCOBOD); around a million livelihoods in the sector (World Bank and government estimates); two-fifths of a 4.2462; a new Ghana Gold Board (GoldBod) to centralise gold purchases and impose traceability; more than 400 "Blue Water Guards" trained to police the rivers; and, in late 2025, a National Anti-Illegal Mining Operations Secretariat (NAIMOS) to unify enforcement.6bn in export revenue in 2024, Bank of Ghana data show, and the small-scale sector, legal and illegal blended indistinguishably, now supplies roughly two-fifths of national output of around 4.