Scope and Governance of Terrestrial Sand Mining Around the Periphery of Accra, Ghana

Sand is a crucial resource for construction of urban infrastructure and constitutes an integral part of the built environment. In Ghana, terrestrial sand mining on farmlands is widespread in the rural and peri-urban communities adjoining the country’s capital, Accra. Despite an estimated mining volume of 765 truckloads per day corresponding to about 4.55 Mio m3 annually, the governance of sand has received little research attention. Therefore, this paper examines the scope and governance of sand mining around the periphery of Accra. Qualitative data were collected from 30 key informants including landowners, officials of the local government authorities, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Minerals Commission (MC), sand miners, truck drivers and staff of real estate companies. Besides, three Focus Group Discussions (FGD) were held with Farmer Based Organizations (FBOs), while observation of the mining process and truckloads of sand were also undertaken. The results showed that sand mining in the study areas were governed by several regulatory agencies with limited collaboration among the agencies. Illegal sand mining was widespread in the study areas due to the bureaucratic licensing procedures; inadequate collaboration among the regulators; bribery of some regulatory officials by the miners; insufficient monitoring of miners, particularly at night and landowners’ preference of sand mining to farming as a result of prompt monetary gains from sand miners. The revenues from sand mining accrued to the miners, landowners and truck drivers, while the livelihoods of the majority of the local residents were negatively affected due to the degradation of farmlands by the sand miners. The findings call for a review of the existing licensing process and collaboration among the regulatory agencies as a prerequisite to the enforcement of the existing laws to ensure sustainable sand mining around the periphery of Accra