Galamsey deforming unborn generation -Catholic Bishops

The President of the Ghana Catholic Bishops’ Conference, Most Rev. Matthew Kwasi Gyamfi, has raised concerns over the health consequences of illegal mining, popularly known as galamsey, saying toxic chemicals from the activity are increasingly entering the human food chain and may be contributing to a rise in birth deformities.

According to him, chemicals used in illegal mining have contaminated water bodies and the environment, creating serious risks for communities, particularly pregnant women and unborn children.

“We are told these poisons get into the food chain and we ingest them by eating, and we hear that there are consequences. Even doctors tell us that for those who take in this poison, it affects the foetus, so babies are born deformed,” he said.

Speaking on Joy FM recently, Most Rev. Gyamfi said the Catholic Church had observed what he described as an increase in deformities among children, particularly through data available from Catholic health facilities.

“Not that there were no babies born with deformities, but the rate is going up very, very high, at least from our Catholic hospitals where we have access to the data,” he stated.

The Catholic prelate said the chemicals used in illegal mining posed a significant danger to communities because of their potential to contaminate water sources and enter the food chain.

“The chemicals they use in galamsey get into our water bodies; they kill the fish, and we cannot drink the water any longer,” he said.

He said the environmental damage caused by illegal mining was also placing additional financial pressure on residents in affected rural communities, who were increasingly being forced to buy water for their daily needs.

According to him, the situation had also affected access to fish and other resources that communities traditionally depended on.

“In the villages, even now, we have to buy water to drink. The cost of living in the villages is very, very high. We have to buy water to cook, and when rivers are dead, there is no fish,” he said.

Fight against galamsey

Most Rev. Gyamfi acknowledged that efforts to combat illegal mining had improved but said the progress was not sufficient to address the scale of the problem.He called for stronger action to protect water bodies and communities from the effects of illegal mining, stressing that the consequences extended beyond the immediate environmental damage.

His concerns come amid continuing national debate over the environmental and public-health consequences of illegal mining, particularly the contamination of water bodies and agricultural land in mining-affected communities.

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