Gold Mining And Disability: Experiences Of Persons With Physical Disability In The Obuasi Municipal Area

ABSTRACT

Despite provisions to uphold and safeguard the rights of persons with disability in Ghana, there is evidence that they still encounter several challenges which limit their full and effective involvement in mainstream society, including the gold mining sector. The study sought to explore how persons with physical disability (PWPDs) experience gold mining in the Obuasi Municipal Area. A qualitative research design was used to discover and to understand the experiences of PWPDs regarding mining. Purposive sampling technique was used to select five key informants for the study with the age range of (24-52 years) while snow ball sampling aided the selection of 16 persons with various forms of physical disability with the age range of (24-60 years). In-depth interviews were used to gather data. Data were analyzed using Creswell’s (2009) concept of thematic analysis. The findings suggest that land degradation, although, affected everyone in the area, persons with mobility and visual impairment experienced much difficulty trekking the undulating land for long distances in search of arable land. Also, although mining activities are mostly labour-intensive, PWPDs were not employed even in areas where they could work. Further, cost of items in general was high, affecting PWPDs more due to their economic immobility and paying for other sources of water due to land degradation and water pollution. The study also discovered that the peculiar conditions of PWPDs were not factored into compensation payments and neither were females with physical disability engaged in compensation negotiations. Also, although some of the infrastructure provided by the gold mining companies in the area were physically accessible to some extent, they were not accessible in terms of information delivery.