Event

Reclamation

Ghana’s Gold Belt: When Rivers Run Toxic

Ghana’s artisanal gold mining has poisoned over 60% of the country’s rivers and lakes with mercury and arsenic. Once-lush waterways in the Ashanti and Western Regions are now undrinkable, unfishable, and deadly—especially for pregnant women and children.

Mercury from “galamsey” builds up in fish and crops, crossing the placenta and causing miscarriages, preterm births, and lifelong neurological damage in babies. In mining communities, 75% of expectant mothers now exceed safe blood-mercury levels; cases of child encephalopathy are rising fast.

The same pits that drain aquifers and bury forests also export pollution across borders to Burkina Faso and Togo, turning a national crisis into a regional one.

We’re fighting back: reclaiming 50 hectares in Obuasi with community biofiltration ponds, screening hundreds of pregnant women, and building ethical, traceable gold supply chains that fund clean water and clinics instead of poisoning them.

Clean gold shouldn’t cost the earth—or its children.