Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences

, Volume 3, Issue 4, pp 381–390 | Cite as

Artisanal small-scale mining and mercury pollution in Ghana: a critical examination of a messy minerals and gold mining policy

  • Frederick A. Armah
  • Isaac Luginaah
  • Justice Odoi
Article
First Online:

Abstract

The use of mercury in artisanal small-scale gold mining has generated intense debate because of its deleterious effects on human health. A narrative policy analysis of artisanal gold mining debates in Ghana’s parliament was carried out in this study. The results show that civil society and policy makers use various rhetorical idioms particularly rhetoric of loss, entitlement, endangerment, unreason, and calamity to support claims-making in the artisanal mining debates. This reveals the co-mingling of politics and science in environmental policymaking. Although the science of mercury has remained almost the same over time in the debates, the understanding of how knowledge is produced has certainly changed over time. The political and economic history of gold mining indicates that colonial and post-independence policies partly account for the persistence and limited integration of artisanal gold mining in the national economy and, by extension, the persistence of mercury pollution in mining communities. Consistently, opposition Members of Parliament (MPs) argued in favor of artisanal miners, unlike their counterparts on the other side of the political divide (ruling government) who virtually sought to blame the victims (artisanal gold miners). However, whenever political change of power occurred, these very same MPs changed their rhetoric from pro-artisanal mining to anti-artisanal mining. Furthermore, anti-artisanal gold mining remarks from government lulls in election years.

Keywords

Social messes Mercury pollution Artisanal gold mining Narrative policy analysis Ghana 
This is a preview of subscription content, log in to check access.

References

  1. Akabzaa T, Darimani A (2001) The impact of mining sector investment: a study of the Tarkwa Mining Region. A draft report. Structural Adjustment Participatory Review International Network (SAPRIN), Accra, GhanaGoogle Scholar
  2. Amegbey NA, Dankwa JBK, Al-Hassan S (1997) Small scale mining in Ghana—techniques and environmental considerations. Int J Surf Min Reclam Environ 11:135–138CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  3. Amponsah-Tawiah K, Dartey-Baah K (2011) The mining industry in Ghana: a blessing or a curse? Int J Bus Soc Sci 2(12):62–69Google Scholar
  4. Aragon FM, Rud JP (2012) Mining, pollution and agricultural productivity: evidence from Ghana. No. dp12-08. Retrieved on 19/11/2012 from http://www.dartmouth.edu/∼neudc2012/docs/paper_7.pdf
  5. Armah FA, Obiri S, Yawson DO, Afrifa EKA, Yengoh GT, Alkan-Olsson J, Odoi JO (2011) Assessment of legal framework for corporate environmental behaviour and perceptions of residents in mining communities in Ghana. J Environ Plan Mgmt 54(2):193–209CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  6. Bank W (2006) Ghana country environmental analysis. Environmentally and Socially Sustainable Development Department (AFTSD) Africa Region. The World Bank, WashingtonGoogle Scholar
  7. Best J (1987) Rhetoric in claims-making. Soc Prob 34(2):101–121CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  8. Bridgman T, Barry D (2002) Regulation is evil: an application of narrative policy analysis to regulatory debate in New Zealand. Policy sci 35(2):141–161CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  9. Bristol N (2011) Male circumcision debate flares in the USA. Lancet 378(9806):1837CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  10. Burger EJ (1990) Health as a surrogate for the environment. Daedalus 119(4):133–153Google Scholar
  11. Bush RC (2009) Soon there will be no-one left to take the corpses to the morgue: accumulation and abjection in Ghana's mining communities. Resour Pol 34(1–2):57–63CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  12. Cohen S (2002) Folk devils and moral panics: the creation of the mods and the rockers. Routledge, LondonGoogle Scholar
  13. Cowlishaw G, Mendelson S, Rowcliffe JM (2006) Livelihoods and sustainability in a bushmeat commodity chain in Ghana. In: Davies G, Brown D (eds) Bushmeat and livelihoods. Blackwell, OxfordGoogle Scholar
  14. Cronon W (1992) A place for societies: nature, history, and narrative. J Am Hist 78(4):1347–1376CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  15. Daley P, O’Neill D (1991) Sad is too mild a word: press coverage of the Exxon Valdez oil spill. J Commun 41:42–57CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  16. Donkor AK, Bonzongo JC, Nartey VK, Adotey DK (2006) Mercury in different environmental compartments of the Pra River Basin, Ghana. Sci Total Environ 368(1):164–176CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  17. Gamson WA, Meyer DS (1996) Framing political opportunity. In: McAdam D, McCarthy JD, Zald MN (eds) Comparative perspectives on social movements: political opportunities, mobilizing structures, and cultural framings. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK, pp 275–290CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  18. Garvin T, Eyles J (1997) The sun safety metanarrative: translating science into public health discourse. Policy Sci 30(2):47–70CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  19. Ghana Minerals Commission (2012) An overview of Ghana's ASM sector retrieved from http://www.ghanamining.org/GhanaIMS/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=lcrOe%2FV5DFA%3D&tabid=36&mid=930 on 15 February 2012
  20. Hajer M (1995) The politics of environmental discourse: ecological modernization and the policy process. Oxford University Press, OxfordGoogle Scholar
  21. Hampton G (2009) Narrative policy analysis and the integration of public involvement in decision making. Policy Sci 42(3):227–242CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  22. Hannigan JA (1995) Environmental sociology: a social constructionist perspective. Routledge, New YorkGoogle Scholar
  23. Hannigan J (2006) Environmental sociology: a social constructionist perspective. Routledge, LondonGoogle Scholar
  24. Hilson, G (2009) Challenges with eradicating child labour in the artisanal mining sector: a case study of the Talensi-Nabdam District, Upper East Region of Ghana. Paper delivered to the Rethinking Extractive Industries Conference, York University, Toronto; CanadaGoogle Scholar
  25. Hilson G (2010) Child labour in African artisanal mining communities: experiences from Northern Ghana. Dev Chang 41(3):445–473CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  26. Hilson GM (2012) Poverty traps in small-scale mining communities: the case of sub-Saharan Africa Taylor and Francis. Can J Dev Stud 33(2):180–197CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  27. Hinton J, Veiga MM, Beinhoff C (2003) Women and artisanal mining: gender roles and the road ahead. In: Hilson G (ed) The socio-economic impacts of artisanal and small-scale mining in developing countries. A.A. Balkema Swets Publishers, The NetherlandsGoogle Scholar
  28. Ibarra PR, Kitsuse JI (1993) Vernacular constituents of moral discourse: an ineractionist proposal for the study of social problems. In: Holstein JA, Miller G (eds) Reconsidering social constructionism: debates in social problems theory. Aldine de Gruyter, New YorkGoogle Scholar
  29. Ibarra PR, Kitsuse JI (2003) Claims-making discourse and vernacular resources. In: Holstein JA, Miller G (eds) Reconsidering social constructionism: debates in social problems theory. Aldine de Gruyter, Hawthorne, NY, pp 17–50Google Scholar
  30. Jasanoff S (1991) Cross national differences in policy implementation. Eval Rev 15(1):103–119CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  31. Jasanoff S (2002) Citizens at risk: cultures of modernity in Europe and the U.S. Sci Cult 11(3):363–380CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  32. Jonsson JB, Fold N (2011) Mining from below: taking African artisanal and small-scale mining seriously. Geogr Compass 5(7):479–493CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  33. Krieger N (2001) Theories for social epidemiology in the 21st century: an eco-social perspective. Int J Epidemiol 30:668–677CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  34. Lidskog R (2008) Scientised sitizens and democratised science: re-assessing the expert—lay divide. J Risk Res 11(1–2):69–86CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  35. Lidskog R, Sundqvist G (2011) Governing the air: the dynamics of science, policy, and citizen interaction. MA, MIT Press, CambridgeCrossRefGoogle Scholar
  36. Lidskog R, Soneryd L, Uggla Y (2009) Transboundary risk governance. Earthscan, LondonGoogle Scholar
  37. Nyame FK, Blocher J (2010) Influence of land tenure practices on artisanal mining activity in Ghana. Resour Pol 35(1):47–53CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  38. Obi CI (2005) Environmental movements in sub-Saharan Africa: a political ecology of power and conflict. United Nations Research Institute for Social Development, GenevaGoogle Scholar
  39. Obiri S, Dodoo DK, Armah FA, Essumang DK, Cobbina SJ (2010a) Evaluation of lead and mercury neurotoxic health risk to resident children in the Obuasi Municipality, Ghana. Environ Toxicol Pharmacol 29(3):209–212CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  40. Obiri S, Dodoo DK, Essumang DK, Armah FA (2010b) Cancer and non-cancer risk assessment from exposure to arsenic, cadmium and copper by resident adults and children in the Obuasi Municipality, Ghana. Int J Human Ecol Risk Assess 16(3):651–665CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  41. Roe E (1994) Narrative policy analysis: theory and practice. Duke UP, DurhamCrossRefGoogle Scholar
  42. Spiegel SJ, Savornin O, Shoko D, Veiga MM (2006) Mercury reduction in Munhena, Mozambique: homemade solutions and the social context for change. Int J occup Environ Health 12(3):215–221CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  43. Taabazuing J, Luginaah IN, Djietror G, Otiso KM (2012) Mining, conflicts and livelihood struggles in a dysfunctional policy environment: the case of Wassa West District, Ghana. Afr Geogr Rev 31(1):33–49Google Scholar
  44. Tschakert P (2009) Digging deep for justice: a radical re-imagination of the artisanal gold mining sector in Ghana. Antipode 41(4):706–740CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  45. Tschakert P, Singha K (2007) Contaminated identities: mercury and marginalization in Ghana’s artisanal mining sector. Geoforum 38(6):1304–1321CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  46. Tsikata FS (1997) The vicissitudes of mineral policy in Ghana. Resour Pol 23(1–2):9–14CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  47. Ungar S (2001) Moral panic versus the risk society: the implications of the changing sites of social anxiety. Br J Sociol 52(2):271–291CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  48. United Nations Foundation (2004) Natural allies: UNEP and civil society. United Nations Environment ProgrammeGoogle Scholar
  49. Veiga MM, Baker R (2004) Protocols for environmental and health assessment of mercury released by artisanal and small scale miners, report to the Global Mercury Project: Removal of barriers to introduction of cleaner artisanal gold mining and extraction technologies. Vienna, Global Mercury ProjectGoogle Scholar

Copyright information

© AESS 2013

Authors and Affiliations

  • Frederick A. Armah
    • 1
    • 2
  • Isaac Luginaah
    • 1
  • Justice Odoi
    • 3
  1. 1.Department of GeographyUniversity of Western OntarioLondonCanada
  2. 2.Department of Environmental Science, School of Biological SciencesUniversity of Cape CoastCape CoastGhana
  3. 3.AccraGhana

Personalised recommendations