But today, deforestation upstream has muddied the water, making it unusable. More than 2, people are forced to rely instead on a borehole. Beneath the lush forest that envelops the town lie what local officials estimate is million tons of bauxite, a valuable mineral used to produce aluminum products from teaspoons to fighter jets.
A billboard campaigns against the mining operation in Atewa in the market of Kwabeng, a small village on the outskirts of the forest, on Sept. The Chinese firm Sinohydro will build the infrastructure on these sites, and Ghana will pay back the costs with proceeds from its sales of refined bauxite.
Despite mounting concern among locals and environmentalists, road construction has already begun. As development continues, work in two areas in particular is proving controversial: Atewa, a mountainous stretch of the rainforest that, as the source of three rivers, provides drinking water to 5 million people, and the Tano-Offin Forest Reserve, which stretches 41, hectares along the hills of Nyinahin.
Kyekyewere is the largest of around half a dozen farming communities inside this forest, which has lost more than 16 percent of old-growth plant life since For its part, the government says that mining will not harm the environment. According to Ruhweza, the vast majority of the Upper Guinean Forest was cleared over the last century.
Endemic species are now reliant on small fragments of remaining forest for their habitats. The consequences of deforestation are grim. Around 34 percent of workers in Ghana are in agriculture.
But those farmers have experienced drought and soaring temperatures hitting 43 degrees Celsius Fahrenheit , which researchers have linked to climate change from deforestation, because trees in tropical forests release water and regulate air temperature.
Daniel Kwamena Ewur explains the negative effects of gold mining activities to a farmer, Afia Nyame, on her cocoa field on Sept.
Ewur is the collaborative resource management officer for A Rocha, an international network of Christian environmental organizations, that is raising awareness about the Atewa mining project among the local population. He said longer, drier seasons were impacting his farm and causing cocao trees to die. Pollution in parts of another major river, the Pra of which Offin River is a tributary , has been blamed on mines. Reports suggest it was probably caused by illegal mining upstream.
Legal mines are not without problems, either. And those whose land has been used have seen little in return for their sacrifices. Under Ghanaian law, at least 10 percent of mining royalties should be handed from the central government to local authorities within mining areas. And local authorities may misuse the funds rather than spending them on development. At the time he took office, he stabilized debt levels at around 57 percent of GDP and brought inflation down to 9 percent in from almost But new loans related to bauxite extraction could reverse those gains.
According to some loan agreements, Ghana is required to set up an offshore escrow account for revenue generated from selling bauxite. China has similar deals with other nations on the continent. Beyond the huge debt, the investment has led to some gains. Single Accounts Corporate Solutions Universities. Premium statistics. Read more. From May to September , the price of bauxite in Ghana was 29 U.
This represented a decrease of three U. Ghana is one of the leading bauxite-producing countries in Africa. You need a Single Account for unlimited access.
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