Political analyst Dr. John Osae-Kwapong has called on the government to revisit and strengthen the New Patriotic Party’s (NPP) Alternative Livelihood Programme as part of a broader strategy to combat illegal mining, widely known as galamsey.
His comments come at a time when concerns over the environmental and social impact of galamsey continue to intensify across Ghana.
The issue has taken on renewed urgency following remarks by the Church of Pentecost, which disclosed that the pollution of rivers and streams is now directly disrupting essential religious practices, including water baptism, in communities heavily affected by illegal mining activities.
Speaking on The Big Issue on Channel One TV on Saturday, April 25, Dr. Osae-Kwapong urged that while enforcement measures remain important, they must be complemented by sustainable economic alternatives that address the root causes driving individuals into illegal mining.
“On the side of economics, those who are engaged in it, as illegal as it is, are also driven by economic incentives. I once talked about the NPP’s Alternative Livelihood Programme and the lessons we can learn from that but the pushback I got from that was that the money you would get from the Alternative Livelihood Programme would never compare to the money you would get from galamsey.
“But I still think that it is a programme worth looking at in addition to the other things that we are trying. The use of the security forces, the Blue Water Guards and all of that. At some point, you will have to make sure that you can change the economic incentive for those who want to engage in it and then the political incentive for those who have the power to do something about it without being overly sensitive.”
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