UESD has mandate to secure environment — Prof. Gibrilla Abass

Water resource scientist and isotope hydrologist, Professor Gibrilla Abass, has stated that the significant thing the country has done right in protecting the environment is the establishment of the University of Environment and Sustainable Development (UESD) with a clear mandate to help secure our environment.  

He said the collective survival of Ghanaians in the future would largely depend on how UESD achieved its mandate of securing the environment and therefore appealed to the government and the Ministry of Education to help nurture the UESD.

Prof. Abass was speaking on the theme: ‘’Securing the environment: Challenging the galamsey menace in Ghana’’ at the sixth UESD Commencement lecture at Somanya in the Yilo Krobo Municipality in the Eastern Region.

Galamsey

The guest speaker, who is also an academic and faculty member of the UESD, noted with concern that the fight against galamsey was not merely about mining, but about safeguarding the very foundations of the nation’s health, economy and survival as a country.

He said the nation had a sacred duty to preserve the forests and pristine rivers inherited from our forefathers for the future, adding, “the nation that was rich enough to sell gold to the world is now too poor to provide drinking water to its own citizens.

‘’The fight against galamsey requires uniting beyond partisanship, enforcing our laws and creating sustainable opportunities. Let us commit to this fight, not with words but with unwavering action.

“We must demand accountability, and local authorities and powerful financiers must be held responsible, not just the vulnerable labourers. The time for excuses is over. We need leadership, not public relations stunts,” Prof. Abass insisted.

Prof. Abass, who has conducted extensive research on water pollution across the country, particularly in areas affected by the galamsey menace, stated in clear terms that “but for the Volta River, Ghana would have been importing water from neighbouring countries now.”

Government intervention

He said that although the government had implemented multiple strategies to curb the menace — including the 2017 ban and inter-ministerial committee, the 2019 “Galamstop” initiative, Operations Vanguard, Halt I and Halt II, the Community Mining Scheme (CMS), excavator control measures, technology and data tracking systems, decentralised licensing, stakeholder consultations, and other recent interventions between 2024 and 2025 — the efforts had largely yielded little success.

The Vice Chancellor of UESD, Prof. Eric Nyarko-Sampson, who chaired the function, said the university looked forward to working with stakeholders to engage in education and awareness creation, where the university would be at the forefront of educating and creating awareness through shaping mindsets that value sustainability over short-term gain.