As it continuously appears, the protesters at the ongoing #StopGalamsey protest in Accra are going to any length to explain the gravity of the impacts of illegal mining, especially in our water bodies, to the rest of Ghanaians.

From filling bottles with some of the water from some of these polluted rivers in the country to serving politicians with this water and sometimes, bread, there is a new one; a bucket.

This brown bucket which became famous on Day 2 of the 3-day protest, is unique for a major reason; it has water from all the 16 rivers of Ghana that have been noticeably affected by the activities of galamsey operators.

As though to mimic the colour of the water from these rivers (which is typically dark brown or somewhat chocolaty), the protesters chose to use a brown bucket.

With a plastered note of ’16 Rivers All In 1 Bucket Mixed With Mercury, Cyanide, Lead,’ one of the protesters explained the details further:

“This is a bucket of all the 16 rivers that have been polluted, mixed with mercury, cyanide and lead. We got samples from all the 16 rivers into one bucket. So, whatever you are seeing here is a mixture of all the 16 rivers.

“So, they’ve already mixed it with mercury, they’ve extracted the gold and this is what is left of the river. This is sending a message to everyone, including the government officials, that this is the state of our river bodies; 16 rivers all in one bucket. So, we are sending a message that this is how bad our rivers have been polluted,” he said to GhanaWeb’s George Ayisi, who is covering the 3-day protest.

So far, the protests have been largely peaceful, with not incidences out of the ordinary reported.

The presence of the police is also very high as the protesters continue to drum home their message of #StopGalamsey while urging the government to release the arrested protesters from the Democracy Hub protests about a fortnight ago.

See photos of the bucket of water and other visuals from Day 2 below:







AE