Ghana started drilling for oil in 2010, and it is estimated that over the next 20 years the small West African country could earn up to US$20 billion in exported oil revenue.
This is an opportunity for the growth of the country’s economy, and for reducing the poverty rate amongst the people living in the coastal towns where the exploration work is carried out.
But five years into the oil trade, some issues are beginning to emerge that are in critical need of attention in order to prevent future crisis. The sea, where the oil drilling activities are carried out, already provides a major source of employment for people living in the coastal towns of the country. Recently, residents in these communities along the coast have suffered some setbacks in plying their trade in the sea. Fishing has been their primary source of livelihood for generations.
Between August 2013 and December 2014, the carcasses of more than 23 whales have appeared on the beaches of Ghana, in some coastal towns. These huge mammals are washed ashore and they decay and pollute the whole environment.
The communities have explained that in the olden days, a dead whale being washed ashore was a sign of a bumper harvest of fish. But the number of dead whales recently has changed their ancient beliefs. Whenever a dead whale is washed ashore, they are put out of business. They cannot undertake their daily work routines until the mammal has… decomposed. The health and economic risks are too high. Parents cannot go to work at sea because of the decomposing mammals. Their children are therefore driven home from school for failing to pay their school fees.
The Freelance journalist, Adams Issaka, visited one of the villages badly hit by the dead whales. He spoke of the severe suffering of the local residents.
“The village I visited had seen seven whales being washed ashore in less than six months. It was very devastating for the local residents. One woman I can still remember cried and begged that the Ghanaian government should come to their aid as they are in severe hardship”, Adams told a Kenyan media after receiving an award in development journalism on a story he had submitted to the Haller Foundation.
In the article that Adams had submitted to the Haller Foundation, local residents in some of the affected areas and researchers suspected that oil drilling in Ghana’s waters is the cause of whale death.
“The frequency of the occurrence of death is going higher. What new thing have we put there that made it go high? The sound waves inserted into the ocean floor during the exploration of the oil are 100 times the sound of a jet plane taking off. So, if you send strange waves to the sea bed, it interferes with [the whales’] echo-location and prevents them from moving, and they are likely to swim to the shallow area of the sea and eventually be washed ashore. So we suspect the oil drilling”, marine expert at the University of Ghana, Professor P. K. Ofori-Danson was quoted as saying.
Worse is the fact that after these huge mammals have been washed ashore, the burial process is not done by health professionals. It is done by the villagers, and some of them have to hack the mammals into piece before it can be buried. This poses a great health risk to the community.
Before oil exploration began, an environmental impact assessment was done for the government by the companies involved. In the assessment, it was identified that the exploration could cause some potential threats to marine mammals. But the mitigation measures that were outlined to reduce these threats have not been properly reviewed by Ghana’s environmental authorities.
Friends of the Nation, an environmental advocacy group, has kept a close eye on the incident, and said in an interview that people have reason to believe that the oil drilling activities are responsible, since it was long predicted by the drillers themselves that it could happen.
Ghana’s environmental authorities are not making any concerted effort to uncover the mystery behind the deaths of the whales. Meanwhile, the annual migration of whales has just begun this year. From January 2015 till June they will be traversing Ghana’s waters, and more of them will probably be washed ashore, which will continue to negatively affect communities living along the coast.
CoNN: There have been a spate of reported whale and dolphin beachings worldwide. Even on Japanese beaches, where a whaling thrawler had ironically returned empty-handed. One wonders if there were any connection….
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