We have to be more responsible
The authorities have lifted the ban on small-scale mining operations which have, for several years, been a primary motive of maximum of the terrible environmental effects in maximum mining groups. The environmental consequences of small-scale mining activities are grave due to the fact maximum of the activities are not coordinated and monitored with the aid of the government.
The methods of mining carried out with the aid of miners decide the severity of the hazard to environmental security. The chemical approach of processing gold is, for instance, a severe fitness danger, mainly the amalgamation with mercury and heap leaching. Small-scale mining activities additionally have numerous poor influences on agricultural activities, the foremost occupation of and supply of livelihood for humans.
It's miles from this heritage that we cautiously welcome the lifting of the ban on small-scale mining groups which have been effectively vetted and their concessions demonstrated by using the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Unlawful Mining (IMCIM), after nearly two years of painstaking efforts to streamline activities inside the small-scale mining quarter.
We also word that the moratorium nonetheless remains in place for small-scale mining corporations that are yet to go through the validation manner via the committee. As small-scale mining operators start paintings, we warn that we ought to now not pass again to our old methods by ensuring that all measures that have been put in the region to test illegal mining activities are nonetheless in force to weed out miscreants from the system.
We are cautious because wrong mining has brought on the environment an excellent deal of harm, the most common being the pollution of water resources, depletion of forests, and degradation of arable land. The dwelling standards of residents in affected areas are adversely affected, ensuing, in addition, the perpetuation of poverty.
In step with the Ghana dwelling requirements Survey (GLSS) file 2008, greater than forty according to cent of Ghanaians in rural, urban, and peri-city centers, specifically kids, died each year from diseases related to hazardous water, inadequate sanitation, and terrible hygiene. It said at the common women and kids walked a distance of six kilometres each day sporting 20 litres of water. This case has arisen because of artisanal mining which uses large volumes of fresh water for processing and which discharges mine sewage into water our bodies.
For us at the each day image, the issuance of licences and allows for floor mining must be reduced and the operators encouraged to explore the underground mining approach with appropriate strategies and competencies that meet worldwide first-rate practices. The municipal and district assemblies ought to additionally enforce environmentally pleasant bye-laws, even as comprehensive environmental protection measures have to be adopted to protect the environment.
We additionally suppose that during applying for licences to establish small-scale mining groups, applicants must be made to attach environmental motion plans to their packages earlier than they may be considered. It's also important that websites wherein licensed small-scale miners operate be inspected officially for functions of environmental control accreditation before applicants’ licenses are renewed if the report is wonderful.
It's miles our expectation that after the environmentally demanding situations of small-scale mining are addressed, we are able to have small-scale mining businesses which are environmentally friendly and economically sustainable to save you the state of affairs where we are able to move returned to our antique approaches of small-scale mining.
Social media invasion at Christmas and New yr cards, human touch deleted
As we went into the Christmas week, the thought that became at the pinnacle of my mind turned into the extreme penetration of social media in our areas. It relegated to the background, the personalized effect and exchanges of greeting playing cards we as soon as noticed in our relationship with the circle of relatives and buddies for the duration of the festive period.
From the start of the Christmas week by myself so far, there has been a social media jam, sending one inundated and confused as to what to read, watch or delete. It's been a length of selective reading at its exceptional. My phone almost was given to the factor of tipping over with over 625 Whatsapp messages and motion pictures. The alternative facet too had been textual content and e-mail messages, not to mention the WhatsApp calls in between. The burden of belonging to so many institution platforms manifested over the holiday season.
Burden because social media has enslaved us to the extent that we've evolved an addiction of instant rush to attend to the beeps just to a peer who's at the other stop or what is trending with the temptation to reply to a few. At the end of the day, so much time become spent simply checking and giving responses. We've surrounded ourselves with several social media systems and have been busy in all of the chat rooms so created.
There are structures for prolonged and close households, school 12 months organizations, groups inside one’s church, and workplaces or former workplaces. There also are such structures for alumni companies, and Bible-examine fellowships, all in addition to the only-on-one personal structures with own family members, buddies, and different associates. So, as one went through the festivities, the ease of just forwarding Christmas greetings, messages, videos, pics and different chit-chats became rife.
One should rely on such a lot of recycled forwarded movies, a number of which saved acting on definitely each platform one changed into. Our provider companies, consisting of cellular smartphone operators, banks, stores, eating places, inns, and airlines did no longer spare us with minute through minute text messages, all within the bid to solicit one’s persevered custom.
Unsolicited ads and promotions also came via, crowding our internet spaces and smartphone displays. A number of them have been mere nuisances. Indeed, it became an energetic social media take-over this final festive season, the intensity of which crushed me. It changed into a digital invasion. One has frolicked clearing the motion pictures however much greater are nonetheless shooting up. Honestly, social media has taken the shine out of the as-soon-as-upon-a-time Christmas and New yr greeting playing cards.
I keep in mind the instances when one would race as much to get greeting cards published off via the give up of the first week of December so that they did now not omit the Christmas publish. One used to treasure the nice and cozy mind represented through the playing cards that came through at some point in the duration. Those playing cards served as part of the decoration on our Christmas timber and center tables reminding us of the warm mind from a long way and close.
Some of us even used to keep a specific 12 months’s cards and brought them to the following year’s decorations. This year, a best-unmarried card arrived for me through the post from overseas. It become not unexpected, for being of the old college, this relationship has usually desired the conventional manner of verbal exchange when you consider that to her, social media is simply too artificial. Regrettably too become the far eliminated closeness around lunch and birthday celebration tables all through the season. The electricity of social media succeeded in breaking face-to-face conversations during a few festive gatherings as human beings stayed glued to their mobile telephones and different devices, catching up on what become trending on social media.
The best thing, but, approximately most of these contemporary communication channels is that we're now able to chat with family members and friends some distance and near and proportion on-the-spot snapshots. Through the strength of video chats the use of Skype, face time, or Whatsapp calls on such activities, one has been capable of chatting face to face regardless of the space. The video chats gave one the opportunity to peer the spread on Christmas dinner and lunch tables and how buddies and relations far away were celebrating the occasion.
One noticed and spoke face to face to buddies and families making up for physical absence at some point of the season. So, properly or terrible, social media and associated applications of today have succeeded in deleting the traditional human touch and experience even at celebrated circle of relatives gatherings and reunions consisting of Christmas and New 12 months. It's been a season overflowing with virtual conversations and greeting cards. The call of the sport in the course of the festive period has been social media.Com. Writer’s e-mail: This e-mail address is being blanketed from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
