A popular Ghanaian documentary maker and YouTuber, Edem Srem, has travelled to the Western Region to capture current images of the extent of vegetative damages that have been caused by the activities of illegal small-scale mining in the country.

Prompted by the recent national discussions on galamsey and its effects in the country, as well as the calls in the right authorities to ensure that they permanently bring a stop to the menace, Edem Srem took his drones to the Western Region to bring visuals that portray an even more devastating state of the land.

The bird’s eye-view shots from Wassa Dadieso, Akonsia and Gyapa, all in the Western Region show galamsey activities actively ongoing near lands very close to major roads.

As can also be seen in the video, several changfans (the Chinese-made machines used to mine in river bodies) lined up, with several local indigenes busily at work around them.

The patched lands, as seen from the shots above, also have very polluted water in them, with only very small patches of greenery seen around them.

The effects of galamsey have recently been so concerning that several individuals, groups and Civil Society Organisations (CSO), have mounted pressure on the government, led by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, to stop the menace.

As part of their contributions to these mounting pressures, Democracy Hub, a pressure group, organised a three-day protest in Accra to drum home their concerns about the unending menace.

Watch Edem Srem’s video, titled ‘Indiscriminate Mining in the Western Region,’ below:



AE