Isaac Odoi Danquah
Water Resources Engineer, Goldrain Mountain Company Limited, Koforidua, Eastern Region – Ghana.
ABSTRACT
Illegal gold mining business is so rampant at Nsutam in the Eastern Region of Ghana after the discovery of gold within the sub region. This has led to the destruction of natural resources such as lands, surface water bodies, forest reserves, plant species, destruction of natural water channels and destruction of aquifers. With this in mind, total land areas and surfaces are destroyed and changed after an illegal gold mining adventure. The aim of this research work sorts to investigate if an illegal gold mined site can be developed into an Eco park after gold mining adventure for the benefit of mankind, community and country. This is the reason for this research work at Nsutam in the Eastern Region of Ghana. After the investigation, it is well established that an illegal gold mined site can be designed, developed into an Eco park after turning pits and dugouts into an edifice where tourist siting places (summer hat buildings) can be developed over the pits and dugouts. Aquatic development can also be done in the dugouts containing water after treatment. Other places developed as play grounds for kids and the old. Sight-seeing stands also obtained after the introduction of animal species such as snails, rabbits, antelopes, tortoise, parrots, Monkeys, turkey and birds of different kinds. Different plant species also introduced to serve as learning platforms for ecologist and students from the biology background. With this, all kinds of classifications (Kingdom to species levels) of animals and plant species can be done to serve as learning platform for all. Water resources sectors within the Eco Park such as dugouts and pits well protected and developed to serve as learning platforms for professionals and students from the water resources sector. Finally, total beautification of the place with green grasses and flowers after good designing by bioengineers.
Keywords: Eco Park, illegal mining, water, land, forest reserves, gold, aquatic, development, ecologist, water resources, dugouts.
1 INTRODUCTION
Gold mining business in Ghana has yield billions of pounds sterling, dollars and cedis to the Ghanaian economy and the
world. Both indigenous and migrants are benefiting from the gold mining business which is changing their lives both locally and internationally. But the only problem is the process of accessing or mining the finite product. That is one of the main challenges facing the people and government of Ghana currently. For this reason, gold is explored in various kinds of ways both by legal and illegal gold miners. Gold exploration by illegal gold miners is always leading to the overexploitation of natural resources such lands, forest reserves and surface water bodies. The illegal mining activities is destroying farm produce and commercial farm products such as cocoa, cassava, plantain, palm oil trees, coconuts etc.
Assessing surface water in Ghana is now a big problem as almost all surface water bodies have been polluted and deteriorated. The once been used by Ghana Water Company Limited for abstraction and treatment for drinking requires huge amounts of money because of the polluted nature of the water body. So is Supong which is one of the areas where the illegal gold is mined. The most interesting thing is that people don’t care and see what is happening, all that they are interested in is the gold and the money. Where will Ghana stand to produce food and cocoa for the international market if all these lands are degraded and becomes infertile hence of no use for crop production. Will the gold money be enough to import all the food Ghanaians needs for sustenance and survival? This is a big no, hence the need to protect the natural resources for the good will of all – both the gold miners and common citizens. Gold mining is a good business that generates Billions of pounds sterling’s and cedis annually for economic growth but comes with repercussions and these need not be toiled with if not it becomes a curse. Since gold mining in Ghana started years ago, generations have come and gone, generations will continue to come and go but this gold resource will continue to be there as this is what nature has blessed the country Ghana for her growth and sustenance hence the need to protect.
Galamsey is a group of unlicensed individuals who come together using crude and sometimes refine methods to mine gold and other minerals. Galamsey or illegal mining became a boom in Ghana in the 1970’s when there was a decline in Ghana’s economy during that time.
When the president of Ghana was sworn into office, he restated his commitment to protect the land and water bodies that has been destroyed as a result of illegal gold mining activities within the country. The president introduced measures to stop the illegalities, regularise the small-scale mining sector, take measures to prevent occurrence of illegalities in the future, including reform and strengthening of regulatory agencies as well as reform of mining laws by that cleaning the mess created by these galamsey people.
Illegal mining operators wash the ore, and discharge waste products into rivers and other water bodies that serve as raw water sources for drinking for various communities within the country. These wastes include mine tailings which are directly discharged into rivers bodies. Large amounts of waste materials released into the water, a large amount of suspended solids that directly contaminate aquatic habitats. Some mine tailings are toxic and pose serious health problems both to humans, animals and plant life. Most water bodies in Ghana over the years have been serving as drinking water for local communities and a raw water source for the Ghana Water Company. These water bodies have been heavily polluted as a result of illegal gold mining operations. The Supong, Birim, Offin, Ankobra, Tano and Pra Rivers for example, have become extremely expensive to treat for human consumption as a result of the very poor water quality and its turbid nature or level.
Nsutam community has a lot of rich natural resources which needs to be harnessed in the right direction as well as protect it for the future generation. Some of this natural resources are lands, water, gold, forest reserves etc. The mining of gold within the community is enriching lives and generating Billions of Pounds Sterling for Ghana and the world market. Despite the enrichment of lives, there is the need for the community and government to mine the resource in the right direction as well as sustaining the natural resources for unborn generations to come. In this regards, there is the need to use standard operation procedures to identify the resources and mine it for the betterment of mankind. In doing this, lands, forest reserves, water bodies will be under management through stakeholder participation towards the sustainability of the natural resources. Natural resources identification, assessment and protection hasn’t been the mentality of Ghanaians but only improper way of harnessing it. Ghana as an economy is rich in natural resources so is Nsutam community in the Eastern Region of Ghana. Nsutam a stopover community is now welcoming natural resources discoverers all over the world as its rich in all kinds of resources. One most important thing in all this is the sustainability of the resource for the now and future generation. Ghana lacks protection, maintenance and sustainability attitude among its citizens and so can be seen at Nsutam community in the Eastern Region of Ghana. The natural resources available at Nsutam needs to be harnessed, mined and protected for the future. In doing this, the natural resource can be used to feed the current generation and future generation. It therefore calls on the government, government agencies, tourist board, stakeholders and private investors to help in the maintenance and protection of natural resources within the community as they continue to mine and use to meet daily needs and demands. Some citizens do not have the use for today but keep for future generation and this needs to be installed in their minds in order to protect and maintain the resources at Nsutam. The Ghanaian government needs to cultivate the attitude of resources estimation, protection and maintenance for the future generation. Government institutions such as Water resources commission, Environmental Protection Agency, Lands commission and Tourist Boards needs to look at resources allocation and the potential of private investors to make use and protect the resources before leasing out. By this, private investors who buys lands in communities such as Nsutam will use standard operation procedures to harness resources such as gold whiles protecting lands, forest reserves and water bodies and designing them into tourist attraction sites in Ghana.
Eco Park development from illegal gold mined sites is a good thought through opportunity to make use of damaged sites or design an illegally mined abandoned sites into a tourist site full of beauty to serve mankind, community, country and the international world. With such a project of life span of say 70years, it can serve generations in various directions;
- Serve as a tourist sites
- Serve as learning sites
- Serve as entertaining sites
- Serve as conference center for programs
- Serve the community on special occasions etc.
- RESEARCH AREA
The research area for this study is in Nsutam in the Eastern Region of Ghana. The people of Nsutam are involved in gold mining, farming and trading. Some of the farm products produced includes coconut, cocoa, plantain, yam, cassava, sugar cane and all kinds of vegetables produced during the farming seasons. The huge amount of gold discovered in the community has resulted in all kinds of illegal gold mining activities destroying water bodies, forest reserves and lands resources. The community has a population of about 7000 (2021 population census) with the majority being immigrants due to the gold mining business, Linda Dor and Paradise Tourist operates in the community. The destroyed land, surface water resources and forest reserves or plant species needs reclamation process in order to restore the infertile lands together with other resources back to normalcy. This fertile rich soils will support plant growth in order to support the hydrological cycle and exchanges of oxygen and carbon dioxide between man and plants. Restoration of the degraded lands will also promote afforestation and wildlife existence in the future for future generation. It will also promote tourist attraction when vegetation’s are groomed and protected with the existence of wildlife’s. Fig 1 below is a view of the study area in the Eastern Region of Ghana where coconut is in mild production to boost livelihoods within the community.
Fig. 1: Map of Fanteakwa south
- METHODOLOGY EMPLOYED FOR THE RESEARCH
The methodology employed for this research is Site Stationed Investigation Procedure (SSIP). With this method, the researcher works on the illegal mined site for several years (2018 – 2023) and embarks on learning and investigations as illegal gold mining is done. The site is designed artificially as various processes and procedures are done by illegal gold miners to access the mineral willingly or unwillingly. Site is discovered after the whole process of illegal gold mining after thorough process to access and analyze what can be done with the site. An Eco Park is seen evolving out the site after the whole process of mining.
- IDENTIFIED ECO PARK DEVELOPMENT STAGES
- Summer Hat buildings creation on dugouts
In the process of mining within the identified area, all kinds of pits were dug to obtain the gold metal. These pits were dug to various depths generating water after hitting water table. Water from the Supong was also abstracted to help in the washing of stones and sand to obtain the gold being sort for. This has created dugouts after pit digging to a greater depth. Quite a number of the dugouts have been obtained and full of water to help in the Eco Park design and construction for Nsutam community. Summer hats buildings will therefore be done after concreting on the water bodies or dugouts having four or three access paths. This will be done with safety precautions or protections in mind so that no client or visitor falls inside the dugouts during operations and usage. This will be done nicely to add beauty to the design of the Eco Park at Nsutam in the Eastern Region of Ghana. Some are of the view that creating such summer hat buildings on illegal mined site dugouts is very dangerous but not the case, if proper design is done and constructed across the dugout with maximum precautions. This will be done to ensure safety of visitors, users and clients so that pleasure attainment will be obtained by all who makes use of the Eco Park now and the future. The dugout will be filled with fishes (to be treated under aquatic habitat creation and sight – seeing) and designed with flowers to give it much beauty to serve the people of Nsutam and beyond.
Fig 1: Summer hat building design
Fig 1 is a summer hat building which is going to be constructed over each of the identified dugouts in the illegal mined site. A number of such summer hat buildings will be constructed to add beauty to the Eco Park at Nsutam. This will have all kinds of fishes and aquatic organisms swimming in them to serve as sight – seeing for visitors and anyone who access the Eco Park. Plate 1 is one of the dugouts to have the summer hat building installed over it.
Plate 1: Dugout to have summer hat building installed
The summer hat building installation and creation on all identified possible dugouts will be done to international standards more than that identified in plate 2 below. Such summer hats will have four or three pathways as can be seen in fig 1. There will be a number of them depending on the number of dugouts identified with adequate size and capacity to facilitate the installations and creation.
Plate 2: sample summer hat building to be installed on dugouts
- Creation of playing grounds for kids
Kids like playing especially when they meet in numbers at a designated place to have fun. Arboretwum at Bunso has seen a lot of visitation and patronage and one can observe playing by kids all day round upon visitation at the Eco Park. And this is no exception when GMCL Eco Park is established at Nsutam in the Eastern Region of Ghana. It therefore deems fit if a playing ground is designed, created or constructed to propagate this gospel of playing among kids, sharing love among themselves and extend friendly hands towards each other. This will enhance cordial relationship creation among kids as they learn how to work and cooperate with each other as they grow and mature into adulthood to serve man and country.
- Access paths creation
All kinds of access paths will be created within the Eco Park to help one access and move around the Eco Park at ease as he/she embarks on sight – seeing. Access paths will comprise of concrete pavements, roads and green grass vegetated areas within the Eco Park. This will add beauty to the Eco Park and hence attract a lot of people to the place to make it lively. Royal palms together with other flowers and tree species will help in the access path and pathway creation (Plate 2). Runoff generation within the Eco Park is very high and again the water table is closer to the surface of the land hence high rate of water over the area. That is, most of the areas within the catchment becomes waterlogged during heavy storms hence the need for pavements and concreting of areas to avoid dirty storm waters being drained into the dugout. When this is achieved, the water body and all waters in the dugouts will be clean and serene all the time to make the Eco Park admirable.
Plate 3: Access pathway creation
- Introduction of animals for sight – seeing and learning
In years back, zoos like the Kumasi zoo in the Ashanti Region harbors all kinds of animals and birds serving as for sight-seeing and for education. This is not the case in the Eastern Region of Ghana and GMCL Eco Park seeks to establish this learning and sight-seeing center for all and especially those living at Nsutam and in the Eastern Region of Ghana. Illegal gold mining is being embarked day in day out within the Eastern Region of Ghana which is turning lands and destroying natural resources within the sub region. Mined sites are left aloof after gold mining business and GMCL seeks to use one of the site as a case study in establishing an Eco Park. Extinction of animals and birds is still on going as individuals enter into deep forest like Atiwa forest to harness such animals and birds for sale and food in the homes. GMCL seeks to preserve nature by creating an area within the Eco Park where all kinds of animals and birds will be kept for sight-seeing and learning by students, young and old. Animal species such as snails, rabbits, antelopes, tortoise, turkey, monkey etc and birds of different kinds will be kept at the Eco Park for this purpose. Birds of different kinds can be found at the Eco Park now and some still moving in on daily basis.
- Ecological creation of plants species
Biologist and Ecologist are much interested in plant species for learning in the schools and universities, for medicinal purposes and so on. For this reason, all kinds of plant species will also be planted within the Eco Park to serve educational purposes of learning at every level of education by all. That is from lower levels of education to the university level in Ghana, Africa and the world. Plant species and flowers will be planted around heaped sands and gravels and decorated into a sight – seeing area where there will be taking of pictures and all kinds of playing activities (photographing area and playground) as shown in Plate 4 below.
Plate 4: photographing area and play ground
- Aquatic habitat creation and sight – seeing.
To access gold from underground through illegal means, all kinds of pits and dugouts have been generated full of dirty and polluted water. This polluted water has been channeled to the river Supong through the creation of artificial river channels within the obtained sites. This is polluting the river Supong and hence river Birim at a high and fast rate. Self-stratification is playing a major role in bringing the water bodies created within the site to normalcy. Treatments will also be done to help the self-treatment purpose of getting a clean quality water. The good quality dugouts and pits that have undergone self-stratification have fishes in them which are growing at a faster rate. The untreated once do no but will be treated and stocked with fishes and aquatic animals or organisms to boost the status of the Eco Park. It will serve educational purposes which also being used as sight – seeing by the indigenous and all within the Nsutam community in the Eastern Region of Ghana.
Plate 5: Polluted water to be treated to serve as aquatic habitat
- Creation of resting stands with trees and flowers
Touring within an Eco Park is a tiring work hence the need for various resting stands where visitors and if possible supervisors working in the Eco Park can rest when the need be. With this in mind, various siting and resting places will be created within the Eco Park to serve this purpose. This will be done under shades or trees in order to receive fresh cool air away from heat and the sun. Such areas will be decorated with flowers to have a very attractive natural beauty to make an Eco Park a very stunning one for all. The Eco Park will be serving people of all classes hence will be to a good standard to serve this purpose at Nsutam in the Eastern Region of Ghana. The construction of the Eco Park will be done with Engineers and floweriest and designers who knows how to give beauty to environment and society. All the dugouts which will harbour the summer hat building will have their areas decorated with flowers and trees together with green grasses and other varieties of grasses covering the ground. This will make the Eco Park beautiful and lively area and place for people to visit, learn and have fun. This will be done for such people together with their friends, staff members, colleagues at school or university and family. Creation of such an Eco Park at Nsutam will serve the community which is now a gold mining community with migration of people within Ghana and outside Ghana to the community.
- Overhead walk creation over Eco Park
Canopy walk is a nice tourist adventure to be embarked on whenever one visits a tourist site with such opportunity. Within the Eco Park will be the planting, nurturing and growing of all kinds of tree species to add beauty and nature to the Eco Park. These trees can be coordinated and modelled into a canopy walk in the future when all the trees are grown and matured. This will give visitors and anyone who accesses the Eco Park a better and nice view of the tourist site and environment. Human beings like adventure and this will give them another adventure opportunity within the Eco Park. This will give a view to human beings comparable to a drone view within the tourist site (Eco Park).
- Creation of Entertainment and Conference Centers
The Eco Park being established sorts out to serve as an entertaining centre and site as well as serving as an education centre or tourist sites where all kinds of learning can be done. With this in focus, there is the creation of an entertainment center and conference or learning centre. Such two areas will purposefully serve entertainment reason and learning reason. The entertainment areas will comprise of places where children will have playing grounds for fun and learning. This will serve as a playing ground where children can easily move around and play during special occasions when they come in their numbers for tourist and entertainment reasons. Children like learning but it’s usually through playing and entertainment. As they happy themselves, then they play alongside each other for friendship, happiness and entertainment. This will be achieved when a playing ground is established within the Eco Park. A learning or conference center will also be created where students can be taught comparable to a classroom teaching environment. This will purposely serve school children and university undergraduates and researchers. Installing all kinds of animals and plants species requires taking tourist through some great learnings and history which when given at the touring moments is easily forgotten. But when done under a classroom settings, students and researchers can easily take lesson notes and write-ups home. Parents too and working class or staffs can be taken through same at the tourist sites and in the conference center.
4.10 Vegetative cropping stand for learning
A vegetative cropping stand will be created where touring people, students and visitors will be taken through vegetative reproduction. With this, some selected crops will be used to demonstrate vegetative reproduction to students, teachers, working staffs and anyone who visits the Eco Park. It will have some planted crops which have undergone vegetative reproduction for better understanding and learning among visitors to the touring site at Nsutam in the Eastern Region of Ghana.
4.11 Aesthetic treatment of created water bodies and dugouts
All the dugouts and pits are full of water undergoing self – stratification. Some have gone through the process over several months past and obtaining the finite good nature of water habited by aquatic organisms (fish, frog, toad etc) and usable by mankind to meet daily water demands. All the dugouts or pits will be aesthetically designed with green grasses, grasses and flowers to make it beautiful and attractive to all. This will be done after installation or construction of the summer hat buildings on the dugouts or water bodies.
- Bioengineering, pavement, concreting and grassing of the Eco Park
Bioengineering of a place with grasses like green grass adds beauty to nature, gives fresh air, increases infiltration, reduces runoff generation full of dirt and sediments into a drain or water body. This will be done in most of the areas with trees planted at vantage points within the Eco Park. Once bioengineering is done together with green grass planting, infiltration will be 100% (higher rate) as runoff generation will be 0% (or to a lesser rate). It is only at the pervious areas where pavements and concreting has been done that will give total runoff generation with various runoff depths. This will be generated during precipitation and will be over the field or Eco Park hence the need to channel all of them downstream. All these runoffs will end up in the connected dugout and finally in river Supong. Most of the bioengineering will be done around the dugouts and connected dugouts towards river Supong. This will be done with green grasses to avoid dirty runoff generation or runoff full of sediments been created and drained into the created dugouts which upon treatments will be of quality and have all kinds of fishes and aquatic organisms. With all kinds of drains within the Eco Park, all generated runoffs void of sediments and dirt’s will be channeled into river Supong. With all these done within the Eco Park, a beautiful sight – seeing Eco Park will be obtained to serve Nsutam community, visitors, country and world comparable to that depicted in plate 6 (Danquah, 2023).
Plate 6: Bioengineering and pavement creation
5 CONCLUSION
Illegal gold mining is now part and parcel of the Ghanaian economy as its serving as a gainful employment source and a source of income for people and homes. It is generating millions of pound sterling’s, dollars, and cedis into pockets and boosting the Ghanaian economy and the world when it comes to gold production. Illegal gold mining will therefore continue to be embarked by the youth and old within Ghana and hence its resultant repercussions. It will always lead to the destruction of farmlands, lands, water bodies, forest reserves and so one. But what one does with the destroyed lands is the most important thing after illegal gold mining adventure within a community. With these assertions, it is justified that one can turn a destroyed land after a gold mining adventure into an Eco Park that will be beneficial to people, community, country and world.
Acknowledgement
Grateful I am to the Almighty God for the mindset, ability to think thoughtfully and in discovering this Eco Park at Nsutam. Thanks to the Chief and people of Nsutam for playing various roles towards the success of this project. I am again grateful to the Danquah and Darko family of Nsutam and Kukurantumi respectively for their various roles. God bless the chief Osaberima, teacher Yirenkyi, Okyeame Danso and the assembly man of Nsutam, honorable Alex for their help and roles in this project. God richly bless you all.
References
Danquah, I. O. (2023), Stormwater Modelling within Three catchments using MIDUSS v2.25: Real Time Simulation Model to analyze stormwater within catchments, International journal of Research.
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