Nutrition
Galamsey and Nutrition: Counting the real cost of Ghana’s gold rush
Illegal small-scale mining, or galamsey, has been branded as one of Ghana’s gravest environmental and economic threats. Successive governments have promised action, task forces have been deployed, and billions of cedis lost in revenue have been reported. Yet a deeper crisis is unfolding beneath the surface: a nutrition emergency directly linked to the destruction caused by galamsey.
Across mining belts in the Western, Ashanti, and Eastern regions, rivers that once sustained farming and fishing are contaminated with mercury and cyanide. Farmers say irrigation is impossible; fishermen say their nets return empty. Independent studies confirm that mercury levels in some rivers exceed World Health Organisation guidelines. The result is a sharp reduction in safe food production and an erosion of the very foundation of Ghana’s nutritional security.
The figures are sobering. Nationally, one in five children under five is stunted. Nearly half of women of reproductive age are anaemic. Child wasting remains at emergency levels in some districts. The destruction of fertile land and poisoning of water through galamsey only compound these problems. In some mining-affected districts, local health authorities report higher rates of undernutrition and anaemia than the national average.
Economists estimate that malnutrition already costs Ghana up to 6.4 per cent of its GDP each year in lost productivity, poor educational outcomes, and higher health expenditures. With agriculture compromised by galamsey, the bill is rising. Food inflation is being felt in urban markets, while rural households in mining areas are forced to survive on monotonous diets that lack the nutrients needed for growth and development.
The accountability gap is glaring. Ghana committed at the 2025 Nutrition for Growth Summit to invest $6 million annually in nutrition. Yet the same state resources continue to be drained by environmental damage, water treatment costs, and agricultural losses linked to galamsey. While authorities launch operations against illegal miners, enforcement remains inconsistent and politically fraught, raising questions about who benefits from the destruction.
Experts warn that without decisive action, galamsey will derail Ghana’s progress toward the Sustainable Development Goals, particularly those on zero hunger, good health, and climate action. “Every river poisoned is a food system destroyed, and Ghana cannot achieve food security while watching our land vanish,” says Dr Charity Binka, Executive Director, WOMEC.
The evidence is clear: galamsey is not just an environmental crime. It is a public health emergency and a development crisis. Addressing it requires more than rhetoric; it requires enforcement, transparency, and the political will to confront vested interests. Unless this happens, Ghana risks trading its children’s nutrition and future productivity for short-term gains in gold.
We therefore demand the activation of permanent inter-agency galamsey response teams with prosecutorial authority independent of political interference and the establishment of a Galamsey Restoration Fund financed through penalties for river remediation and emergency nutrition interventions. We also call for the publication of quarterly malnutrition data disaggregated by mining-affected districts.
We join the call for amendments to the Minerals and Mining Act with a focus on mandating nutrition impact assessments with automatic permit suspension for violations, the resourcing of community water monitoring committees with testing kits, and the invitation of UN Special Rapporteurs to assess affected regions and provide independent recommendations.
We urge every citizen to demand that their MP publicly declare their enforcement plan and support stronger penalties, because the evidence is overwhelming and the solutions are known. Ghana’s rivers, farmlands, and children cannot wait for another empty promise.
Feature Article by Women, Media and Change under its Nourish Ghana: Advocating for Increased Leadership to Combat Malnutrition Project
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Egg stew is a traditional dish from Ghana. It is very healthy and easy to prepare. The dish is traditionally served with rice, plantain and any other meal of one’s choice.
Ingredients
-1 litre of vegetable oil
-2 fresh salmon
-10 large tomatoes
-5 large onions
– 6 eggs
-3 tablespoonful of pepper
-1 tablespoonful of powdered garlic and ginger
-1 tin of mackerel
– I large green pepper
-3 tablespoonful of tomatoes paste
Preparation
-Wash tomatoes, onion, green pepper and blend
-Put oil on fire and add onion and powdered pepper to it
-When onions turn golden brown, add blended tomatoes and tomato paste to it. (Allow it to cook for 3 minutes.)
-Add eggs and salmon to stew and leave it for a minute before stirring.
– Add seasoning to the stew and serve.
By Linda Abrefi Wadie
Every baby deserves a healthy start. But in Ghana, too many children are being born already behind, too small, too fragile, and at far greater risk than their peers. Low birth weight, defined as weighing less than 2.5 kilograms at birth, affects an estimated one in seven newborns in this country.
That is a significant proportion of children beginning life at a disadvantage, often due to preventable causes.
Children born with low birth weight face a steeply uphill journey from their very first breath. They are more susceptible to birth asphyxia, infections, hypothermia, and respiratory complications.
They are more likely to die in their first month of life. Those who survive face higher risks of stunting, impaired cognitive development, and a greater likelihood of developing non-communicable diseases including type two diabetes, hypertension, and heart disease later in life.
Low birth weight does not just harm the child today. It shapes their health for decades.
The most powerful determinant of a baby’s birth weight is what the mother eats, and how healthy she is before and during pregnancy. Research in Ghana has consistently shown that maternal anaemia, poor dietary diversity, and inadequate antenatal care are all strongly linked to low birth weight.
A study in Cape Coast found that mothers with low dietary diversity during pregnancy were significantly more likely to deliver low birth weight babies. In Northern Ghana, maternal anaemia in both the first and third trimesters of pregnancy increased the risk of low birth weight. What a woman eats is what her baby weighs.
Education matters too. Mothers with secondary or higher education have been found to be less likely to deliver a low-birth-weight baby, a difference attributed to better nutrition knowledge, improved antenatal care attendance, and healthier health-seeking behaviour overall.
This points clearly to the need for a whole-of-society response, not just a clinical one.
Ghana has made some progress on low birth weight, but the burden remains unacceptably high and in some parts of the country, it is worsening. Other important risk factors must not be overlooked.
Adolescent pregnancy, which remains prevalent in several regions, is strongly associated with low birth weight because young mothers are often still growing and competing with the fetus for nutrients.
Malaria infection during pregnancy, particularly in endemic areas of Ghana, damages the placenta and restricts nutrient transfer, further increasing the likelihood of a low-birth-weight baby.
These risk factors compound the effects of poor maternal nutrition and limited antenatal care. Leaders in government, health facilities, and communities must prioritise maternal nutrition before, during, and after pregnancy.
Reducing low birth weight is not complicated. It requires feeding mothers well, supporting them through antenatal care, ensuring access to iron-folic acid supplementation and malaria prevention during pregnancy, and treating their health as a national priority, not an afterthought.
Feature article by Women, Media and Change under its Nourish Ghana: Advocating for Increased Leadership to Combat Malnutrition project
