Introduction
In 2024, visiting mining sites in, Tarkwa, Nsuaem, Prestea, and Huni Valley, drew my attention to Act 703. Also attending a lecture at the University of Mines and Technology (UMaT), during my visit, opened me up into greater understanding of the legal regimes underpinning Ghana’s mining sector – basis for this conversation.
Ghana, often hailed as the “Black Star of Africa,” stands at a perilous crossroads where the glittering promise of mineral wealth collides with the grim reality of environmental devastation.
The Minerals and Mining Act, 2006 (Act 703), ostensibly designed to regulate the extractive sector for sustainable national benefit, has instead become a conduit for ecological injustice and eco-imperialism.
At its core lies Section 17, which grants mining operators sweeping “water rights” to divert, impound, and exploit water bodies—pristine lifelines of communities and ecosystems—under the guise of economic progress. This provision, coupled with ancillary regulations like the Environmental Protection (Mining in Forest Reserves) Regulations, 2022 (LI 2462), has fueled an ecocide that disproportionately burdens marginalized rural populations, while foreign corporations and local elites (and their enslaved collaborators in the mining pits) reap disproportionate rewards.
As rivers turn toxic and forests vanish, the scars of this neocolonial plunder deepen, demanding immediate repeal and a reckoning with the moral imperatives of stewardship.
This write-up dissects Act 703, interrogates its complicity in environmental ruin, and calls for urgent action to avert irreversible catastrophe.
Overview of the Minerals and Mining Act, 2006 (Act 703)
Enacted on March 31, 2006, Act 703 replaced the outdated Minerals and Mining Code, 1986 (PNDCL 153), aiming to modernize Ghana’s mining regime amid a global commodities boom. The Act vests all mineral rights in the Republic, administered by the Minerals Commission, to ensure orderly exploration, prospecting, and extraction while promoting local content, fiscal equity, and environmental safeguards.
The Act establishes a tiered licensing system: reconnaissance licenses for surveys (up to one year), prospecting licenses for sampling (up to four years), and mining leases for full operations (up to 30 years, renewable).
Fiscal mechanisms include royalties (3-6% for most minerals, up to 12% for gold), a 35% corporate tax, and contributions to stabilization funds, intended to channel revenues toward development.
On paper, the Act embeds sustainability: Sections 72-74 mandate environmental impact assessments (EIAs), rehabilitation plans, and bonds for mine closure, while the Minerals and Mining (Compensation and Resettlement) Regulations, 2012 (LI 2175) require fair compensation for affected communities.
Amendments via Act 995 (2019) escalated penalties for illegal mining (“galamsey”), imposing fines up to GH¢5 million and 15-year prison terms. Yet, implementation falters.
As of 2025, mining contributes over 30% of exports but has triggered widespread pollution, with galamsey alone contaminating 60% of surface water sources and deforesting thousands of hectares annually.
Act 703’s permissive framework, prioritizing investor incentives like tax stability, has enabled a “resource curse” where ecological costs are externalized onto the vulnerable, embodying eco-imperialism—a modern echo of colonial extraction where foreign capital dominates, local ecosystems suffer, and sovereignty erodes.
Section 17: The “Water Rights” Provision Fueling Ecocide
Section 17 of Act 703, titled “Water right,” is the linchpin of this ecological betrayal. It empowers holders of mineral rights—reconnaissance, prospecting, or mining licenses, to “divert, impound, store, extract, or use water from any water body” for operations, subject only to “requisite approvals or licences under the Water Resources Commission Act, 1996 (Act 522).” This ostensibly conditional authority translates to de facto impunity: miners can reroute rivers, dam streams, or pump groundwater, often with minimal oversight, leading to sedimentation, acidification, and heavy metal contamination from mercury and cyanide used in gold processing.
In practice, Section 17 has sanctioned the “touching”, and desecration, of sacred water bodies. In particular, the Pra River Basin, a lifeline for millions, exemplifies the toll: galamsey under Act 703’s umbrella has spiked turbidity to astronomically high levels rendering water undrinkable and fisheries collapse, while mercury levels exceed World Health Organisation’s limits by 10-fold, causing neurological disorders in children.
This provision roots ecocide in law, transforming rivers from communal arteries into industrial effluents, where the “right” to mine trumps the right to life-giving water.
European powers plundered (did not destroy) Gold Coast rivers for export crops; Act 703 invites multinationals (holding 80% of leases) to exploit without equitable restitution – herein lies the root cause of the canker.
Question: if the “big boys” can ‘divert and impound” water bodies for selfish gain, why would the “small boys” not enter the waters themselves for selfish survival? After all, is self-preservation not the first law of nature?
Ecological Injustice and Eco-Imperialism in Ghana’s Mining Landscape
Ecological injustice manifests as a triple failure: distributive (harms borne by the poor), procedural (exclusion from decisions), and recognitional (dismissal of indigenous knowledge).
Rural mining communities endure poisoned wells and flooded farmlands, while the elite and foreign firms (e.g., Newmont, AngloGold Ashanti) capture 70% of profits.
Eco-imperialism amplifies this: Act 703’s investor-friendly clauses echo the 1890s concessions that ceded vast tracts to British firms, now repackaged as Foreign Direct Investments (FDIs).
This neocolonial dynamic, rooted in Section 17, sustains a cycle where water diversion for tailings dams starves downstream ecosystems, exacerbating floods and droughts.
Ecological Imperialism pervades: the Global North’s green transition (e.g., EV batteries needing Ghana’s lithium) externalizes pollution southward, mirroring historical slave trade logics of disposability.
Why Is the Water Resources Commission Not at the Forefront of Advocacy?
The Water Resources Commission (WRC), established under Act 522 (1996), is Ghana’s apex regulator for water management, tasked with planning, pollution control, licensing, and equitable allocation. Its mission—”wise, fair, and sustainable use”—positions it ideally to champion water body protection against mining incursions. Yet, the WRC’s advocacy remains tepid, mired in regulatory capture and institutional silos.
While the WRC issues water rights under Section 17 and monitors pollution (e.g., via basin committees), it rarely leads public campaigns against mining excesses. Instead, it collaborates with the Minerals Commission on permits, approving diversions that later prove disastrous, as in the Ankobra River’s cyanide spills. Budget constraints (under 1% of national allocation) and political pressure from mining lobbies stifle bolder action; the WRC’s 2024 reports flag pollution but stop short of calling for Act 703 reforms. This passivity betrays the WRC’s mandate, allowing eco-injustice to fester.
As a Public Policy Advocacy Think-Tank, the MILLS Institute is urging the WRC to pivot toward advocacy – suing violators and demanding moratoriums, instead of lingering in the shadows, complicit in the very dilutions it should combat.
The Complicit LI 2462: Mining in Forest Reserves
Compounding Section 17’s harms is LI 2462 (2022), which operationalizes mining in forest reserves – once off-limits except for reconnaissance, by waiving full Environmental Impact Assessments (EIAs) for “low-impact” operations and granting presidential discretion over leases.
“Presidential Discretion” to Presidents who can have the capacity to wear heavy cloaks of partisan mindsets and believe in “Let my party live and let Ghana die”? Unbelievable!!!
This instrument has greenlit concessions in biodiversity hotspots accelerating deforestation and upstream pollution that feeds into water diversions under Act 703.
Protests in 2024 prompted a repeal bill in October, tabled before Parliament, but delays persist amid industry pushback.
Indeed, as I write this piece, one of the pressure groups that actively demonstrated in 2024, has embarked on a three-day vigil cum demonstration over the same issue of the urgent need to repeal LI 2462 – they do not seem to be aware of Section 17 of Act 703. Maybe, it is one issue at a time!
LI 2462 exemplifies procedural injustice, bypassing community consent and amplifying eco-imperialism by auctioning sacred groves to extractive interests.
Urgent Imperative: Repeal Section 17 for Eco-Justice
Section 17 must be repealed immediately – not amended, but excised, as the urgent linchpin of eco-justice. Its repeal would sever the legal artery feeding mining’s hydra, mandating alternative water sourcing (e.g., recycled or imported) and elevating community veto rights.
Paired with LI 2462’s revocation, this would save lives: restoring rivers could avert 50,000 annual malaria cases from stagnant, polluted pools and safeguard food security for 5 million downstream dependents.
Parliament must NOW: Delay entrenches injustice; repeal ignites redemption.
The Theological Imperative: A Divine Mandate for Creation Care
From a theological vantage, Ghana’s ecocide under Act 703 offends the Creator’s covenant. Genesis 2:15 entrusts humanity as “gardeners” of Eden—stewards, not despoilers—commanding us to “till and keep” the earth, a sacred trust violated by Section 17’s commodification of waters that “teem with living creatures” (Genesis 1:20).
The prophets thunder against such plunder: Amos 5:24 envisions “justice roll down like waters,” not toxins; Hosea 4:1-3 laments a land “mourning” for ethical betrayal, where “the fish of the sea… and the birds of the air… and the creatures of the earth… are swept away” by human greed.
In Christ, the “cosmic redeemer” (Colossians 1:20), we find impetus: the incarnation affirms creation’s sanctity, demanding repentance from eco-imperialism as idolatry (Romans 1:25).
As a theologian who holds on strongly to my Christian Faith, I posit; Ghana’s churches heirs to God’s moral vision, must prophesy repeal, mobilizing for Sabbath rest for the land (Leviticus 25).
Latching on to the divinely-inspired and nation-loving wheel vis-a-vis the recent stoic call by the Ghana Catholic Bishops Conference on the President to understand that “Delay is Betrayal”, as Pope Francis echoes in Laudato Si’, subtitled “On Care For Our Common Home”, the cry of the poor joins the earth’s groan (Romans 8:22); ignoring it invites divine judgment.
The time for prophetic action is now: repeal as reparation, justice as jubilee.
Conclusion: Delay Is Betrayal, and the Time to Act Is Now
Act 703’s Section 17 is no mere clause; it is the root of ecocide, a legal scaffold for injustice that demands dismantling.
With the WRC’s advocacy faltering and LI 2462’s repeal pending, Ghana teeters on apocalypse’s edge—rivers dying, forests gasping, communities perishing.
Yet, in this valley of dry bones (Ezekiel 37), resurrection beckons through bold repeal and collective will.
Delay is betrayal; the time to act is now. Let Mother Ghana’s waters flow free, her justice unimpounded, her children redeemed.
Amen!!!
Samuel Koku Anyidoho
(Founder & CEO, MILLS Institute For Transformational Leadership Development)
Email: Sitsoanyidoho1@yahoo.com
Tuesday, September 23, 2025.