Researchers from Ghana and Canada have recommended that Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) be empowered, funded and given a clear mandate to oversee all small-scale mining in their areas. The proposal, reported by Graphic Online, comes from a study led by Dr John Boakye-Danquah of the University of Saskatchewan and Globe and Systems Consulting.
The other authors are Professor Yaw Agyemang Boafo of the Centre for Climate Change and Sustainability Studies at the University of Ghana, Dr Felicitas Egunyu of the University of Waterloo, and Mfah Amadu of SysGlo Ghana Limited. The study argues that the present arrangement, in which licences are granted and monitoring directed from Accra, was never built to handle a problem of this size.
Why it matters
According to Graphic Online, the researchers contend that the current system has failed over years of task forces, military deployments, drones and press briefings. Rivers remain silted and discoloured, forest reserves carry the scars of excavation, farmland is contaminated with mercury, and communities are split between those earning from the trade and those bearing its costs.
The study's central claim is that regulators such as the Minerals Commission and the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) do not hold the local data or the capacity to keep watch on hundreds of dispersed sites. Galamsey, as illegal small-scale mining is known in Ghana, takes place in valleys, along forest edges, inside cocoa farms and in riverbeds — locations that central officers reach rarely, if ever.
Assemblies, by contrast, are described as the only state bodies with a permanent presence in mining communities. The researchers say they hold the local knowledge, the field staff and the land-use authority to supervise operations site by site. Graphic Online reports that this includes knowing who owns which farm, which chief granted which concession, which road leads to which pit, and which young men went into the bush the previous night.
A mandate to monitor, not to license
The study does not propose that assemblies take over the issuance of mining licences or displace the Minerals Commission. Instead, it calls for a mandate to monitor and report on all mining activity within each district, backed by training and a dependable budget.
Graphic Online reports that the researchers also want District Mining Committees (DMCs) made functional. These committees already exist in law, but the study says many are inactive, holding no meetings, keeping no minutes, and operating without funds or authority. The recommendation is that they receive clear terms of reference, their own budgets, regular sittings and a duty to report every quarter.
The authors trace part of the problem to the centralisation of mining governance. With licensing and oversight concentrated in the capital, a large number of small sites spread across many districts cannot be supervised by a small corps of officers with limited vehicles, limited fuel and no live information. By the time a report arrives in Accra, the study notes, the operators have relocated, the water is already polluted, and a pit has caved in on a child.
Objections and the funding question
The study acknowledges likely criticism. Graphic Online reports that critics may argue district assemblies are themselves politicised, that some officials profit from illegal mining, and that handing them more authority could deepen corruption. The assemblies are also described as already overstretched and short of funds, in some cases unable to pay for basic services.
The researchers' answer is that any new mandate must be matched with money, drawn from mineral royalties, the Minerals Development Fund and the national budget. They also warn of a wider cost: when citizens see the state unable to halt illegal mining in their own communities, confidence in the state itself erodes.
The recommendation arrives alongside continued enforcement activity reported elsewhere. GhanaWeb reported that Buah charged young people to lead the fight against galamsey, while Modern Ghana reported that Zanetor called for harsh measures against illegal miners. Modern Ghana also reported that NAIMOS was to begin Operation Green Shield with the Atewa Forest Reserve, and Adomonline.com reported that NAIMOS and the Navy immobilised illegal mining equipment on the River Offin amid armed resistance.
Those reports were not part of the study and are separate from its findings, but they illustrate the enforcement pressure the researchers say central agencies struggle to sustain across many sites at once.
What happens next depends on whether government and Parliament take up the proposal. Watch for any move to revise the terms of reference and funding of District Mining Committees, and for budget allocations to assemblies for mining oversight.
