Church leaders call Ghana to protect environment and promote peace

Cardinal Peter Turkson said its people must recognise their ‘profound’ relationship with the environment.

Bishop John Baptist Attakruh of Sekondi-Takoradi warned that Ghana’s rivers have been “critically polluted” from the effects of illegal gold mining known as “galamsey”.

Speaking at a centenary event for the Knights of Marshall on 4 July, discussing the climate crisis and Pope Francis’ apostolic exhortation Laudate Deum, Bishop Attakruh reported that 60 per cent of water bodies in Ghana were polluted, particularly those near gold mines.

“The high concentration of heavy metals and toxic chemicals in the water are affecting both human life and water biodiversity,” he said.

Ghana leads gold production in Africa, yielding roughly 130 tons every year. This comprised more than 93 per cent of its 2019 mineral revenue. An estimated one million Ghanaians work in illegal galamsey mines, with 4.5 million others linked to the trade.

The country’s bishops have condemned the practice as a threat to human and environmental health and to the Ghanaian economy. Godfred Bokpin, a professor of Economics and Finance at the University of Ghana Business School, reported total annual losses of $2.4 billion to galamsey, far surpassing what the state receives from the International Monetary Fund.

Speaking on Ghanaian television last week after presiding at Ghana’s first National Day of Prayer and Thanksgiving on 1 July, Cardinal Peter Turkson said its people must recognise their “profound” relationship with the environment.

“The environment is not merely an object to be treated arbitrarily,” said Turkson, the chancellor of the Pontifical Academies of Sciences, in an interview broadcast on 8 July. “Our bodies are derived from it and sustained by its bounty. Therefore, it should not be abused or exploited.”

Pope Leo echoed these comments as he celebrated the first Mass for the Care of Creation in Castel Gandolfo outside Rome the next day.

“Only a contemplative gaze can change our relationship with creation and allow us to escape from the ecological crisis caused by the rupture in our relationships with God, with our neighbour and with the earth that result from sin,” the Pope said.

Elsewhere in his interview, Turkson called his native country “to reexamine the symbols it celebrates”, noting that Katoka International Airport is named after the leader of the 1966 military coup Emmanuel Kwasi Kotoka.

“I’m not holding anybody up for criticism. It is an introspection that we need to make,” he said. “The governments in the past may have had a reason to do it, but if we are resetting, then it’s good to do a full review of the history.”

Turkson’s visit to Ghana coincided with increased Church collaboration with the government under the Sahel Peace Initiative, responding to growing tensions in the region driven by militia violence and mass displacement.

Catholic officials last week met Muntaka Mohammed-Mubarak, the country’s interior minister, to discuss means to promote stability and coexistence, said Fr Michael Quaicoo who heads the Ghanaian bishops’ Justice and Peace commission.

“We must all learn to coexist, and the work of your secretariat will help protect the peace that Ghana currently enjoys,” Mohammed-Mubarak, said, welcoming efforts led by Caritas Ghana to support regional stability.

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