Protesters at the ongoing #StopGalamseyNow demonstration in Accra are going to great lengths to illustrate the severe effects of illegal mining, particularly on the country’s water bodies.
From filling bottles with water from polluted rivers to offering this water—sometimes with bread—to politicians, a new symbol has emerged: a brown bucket.
This brown bucket, which gained attention on Day 2 of the 3-day protest, stands out for one key reason: it contains water collected from all 16 rivers across Ghana that have been visibly impacted by illegal mining (galamsey) activities.
In a symbolic move to reflect the typical dark brown or murky appearance of these rivers, the protesters deliberately chose a brown bucket for their demonstration.
With a plastered note of ’16 Rivers All In 1 Bucket Mixed With Mercury, Cyanide, and Lead,’ one of the protesters explained the details further:
“This is a bucket of all the 16 rivers that have been polluted, mixed with mercury, cyanide, and lead. We got samples from all the 16 rivers into one bucket. So, whatever you are seeing here is a mixture of all the 16 rivers.
“So, they’ve already mixed it with mercury; they’ve extracted the gold, and this is what is left of the river. This is sending a message to everyone, including the government officials, that this is the state of our river bodies—16 rivers all in one bucket.
So, we are sending a message that this is how bad our rivers have been polluted,” he said.
So far, the protests have been largely peaceful, with no incidences out of the ordinary reported.
The presence of the police is also very high as the protesters continue to drum home their message of #StopGalamsey while urging the government to release the arrested protesters from the Democracy Hub protests about a fortnight ago.