By Alex Ababio & Isaac Nsiah Foster | Ghanaian Watch Special Report Team
GHANA — The roar of shandfan dredging machines mixes with the flow of the River Pra, where young men, armed with sophisticated weapons, guard their illegal mining operations. In the midst of the chaos stands Professor Nana Ama Browne Klutse, Chief Executive of Ghana’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Her team collects water samples under the watchful eyes of the armed miners, who know the law restricts the EPA from using force.
“This is what we face,” Professor Klutse says calmly. “As members of the EPA doing our routine checks, what could we do against these people wielding powerful guns? The laws do not permit us to use guns. So you see, there is nothing I can do.”
In an exclusive, wide-ranging interview with Ghanaian Watch, she reveals the frightening truth behind Ghana’s environmental enforcement crisis—ranging from weak laws and dangerous armed miners to a wave of toxic chemicals entering through porous borders. Yet she also offers hope: a $200,000 technology that could clean Ghana’s poisoned rivers—if funding is found.
A System Overwhelmed
The River Pra episode is not an isolated event—it represents a nationwide collapse of environmental control. Ghana’s regulators are increasingly powerless in the face of heavily armed, illegal miners who operate without fear.
“We are enforcing the laws as much as our efforts can do,” Professor Klutse explains. Her team regularly monitors licensed small-scale mining sites to ensure proper practices. “Those who have permits, we know where they work, and we regularly go to monitor to check whether they’re doing the right mining practices.”
But unlicensed operators—many with no regard for environmental laws—pose the greatest danger. “There are a great number of small-scale miners who do not have permits and resort to anything without paying heed to the right thing to do,” she says. “Sometimes we go there and they are gone. Other times we find them working while their bodyguards wield powerful and sophisticated guns.”
Faced with this reality, her team can only try to persuade rather than enforce. “Within our capacity, what we do is that we engage them in conversation to show them the right thing to do and leave the place,” she explains.
The Border Connection
Illegal mining’s destruction begins long before gold dust touches the water. It starts at Ghana’s borders—porous, under-policed, and exploited for the smuggling of cyanide, mercury, and other dangerous chemicals that poison rivers and kill aquatic life.
Recent intelligence paints a disturbing picture of transnational smuggling networks operating across Ghana’s northern, eastern, and western borders.
At the Burkina Faso border, in July 2025, authorities intercepted a tanker carrying 250 drums of suspected sodium cyanide. “Our intelligence led us to intercept a tanker vehicle full of cyanide coming into the country from Burkina Faso,” Professor Klutse reveals. “We traced it and arrested the tanker and the smugglers.”
The Ghana Immigration Service confirmed that the operation took place at an unapproved crossing point along the Black Volta River in the Upper West Region, an area long exploited by smugglers due to its vast and inaccessible terrain.
This is only a glimpse of the broader threat. Ghana’s Immigration Service has documented over 250 unapproved border routes used for crimes such as arms trafficking, drug smuggling, human trafficking, and the illegal import of mining chemicals. These unchecked flows fuel the country’s environmental destruction from the borders to its riverbeds.
Legal Loopholes and Enforcement Gaps
Professor Klutse identifies a crucial flaw crippling enforcement efforts: the law itself. “The laws do not permit us to use guns,” she says. “Those who do not have our permit, their control is very hard and difficult, and it is beyond the mandate and working authority of EPA.”
Under Ghana’s mining laws, small-scale mining is supposed to use only simple tools such as hoes and pickaxes—not excavators. Yet excavators dominate the illegal sites, churning up riverbanks and forests with impunity. “Stopping them has become a problem because if you ask them to stop, they do not heed the order,” she admits.
The EPA has tried to enforce accountability through a financial mechanism known as the reclamation bond, meant to fund the restoration of mined lands. “When I assumed office, I realized that small-scale miners do not pay the reclamation bond they are supposed to pay,” Professor Klutse explains.
The bond, totaling 6,000 Ghana cedis, including a 1,000 cedi registration fee, is meant to cover pit reclamation when miners abandon sites. Yet many miners evade it deliberately. “It is not the money for license that is troubling them,” she notes. “They fear the EPA will identify them and monitor their operations. Because most of them do not work according to EPA directions, that is the reason why most of them are running away.”
The $200,000 Technological Solution
Amid these challenges, Professor Klutse has identified a potentially groundbreaking technology that could clean Ghana’s polluted rivers—if funding becomes available.
“There is another type of technology that we call nano ozone, which has the ability to create ozone bubbles in the water and remove all the heavy metals like mercury, lead, and cyanide,” she explains. “This makes the water clear and clean just like its natural state.”
This innovative purification system could restore rivers like the Pra and Ankobra, currently thick with silt and toxic metals from years of illegal mining. But the price tag remains out of reach. “If we have about $200,000, we can do a pilot project to show Ghanaians that it is doable,” she says.
The cost is modest compared to the environmental damage it could reverse—roughly equal to the reclamation bonds from just 200 small-scale mining permits. Yet without funding, the technology remains an unrealized promise.
Global Commitments and Local Consequences
Ghana’s environmental battles are tied to its international obligations. “Ghana is a signatory to the Minamata Convention on Mercury,” Professor Klutse notes. The treaty aims to reduce global mercury emissions that harm humans and ecosystems. “In the first week of November, we will be going to a meeting about it in Geneva. We have international laws and standards that govern our environment, especially on climate change and global warming. Even the Paris Agreement—we have signed unto it.”
Despite these commitments, the local consequences of illegal mining remain dire. “The destruction affects everyone—children, women living in mining communities, and wildlife including chimpanzees,” she warns. Reports from forest reserves show species facing possible extinction as habitats vanish.
To combat this, the EPA runs educational projects such as Planet Gold, which trains miners in mercury-free gold processing. “Planet Gold educates miners on how they can process gold without using mercury,” she says. But education alone is not enough. “For those who are stubborn and difficult to deal with, it is only the laws that can deal with them properly.”
Toward Legal and Structural Reform
According to Professor Klutse, comprehensive legal reform is underway. “We have started the process to review the mining laws. Hopefully it will not last long to finish the process to get new mining laws that will take care of all the loopholes.”
The EPA is engaging stakeholders, including miners and industry leaders, in dialogue to identify weaknesses in the existing framework. “We have started discussion with various stakeholders,” she says. “The Attorney General has to work on it and submit it to Parliament. The process is tedious because it has to go through the relevant committees for deliberation.”
Despite the lengthy process, she remains hopeful. “The interesting aspect is that we have started the process, and gradually it will go through,” she says.
Professor Klutse also calls for reforms to protect vulnerable populations and wildlife. “Other bodies must look into how human lives are affected, especially children and pregnant women. Laws should ensure that miners who cause harm are held responsible and that victims are compensated. Wildlife—including chimpanzees, elephants, and other species going extinct—must also be protected.”
A Call for Comprehensive Action
As Professor Klutse prepares to represent Ghana at the Minamata Convention meeting in Geneva, her message is clear: Ghana needs decisive, coordinated action.
The nation must strengthen border controls, close legal loopholes, equip enforcement agencies, and fund technological solutions to clean up its rivers. International partnerships could be key—especially since 90% of UNODC funding comes from voluntary contributions that could be channeled toward environmental crime prevention.
Meanwhile, EPA field officers continue their hazardous mission, collecting water samples under threat of gunfire. The tests from River Pra confirm what everyone already knows: the waters remain poisoned with mercury and cyanide.
Yet, amidst this grim reality, Professor Klutse’s determination remains unwavering. “We are committed,” she says firmly. “The process is not simple, but we have started. We will get the needed laws to deal with the mining activities in the country to ensure we have a safe environment and ecosystem for everyone—human lives, ecological lives, and wildlife.”
The question that lingers is whether Ghana can act fast enough—before its rivers, forests, and species disappear beyond redemption.