Land Use Challenges in Mining Communities – The Case of Tarkwa-Nsuaem Municipality

Abstract

Mining and its related activities usually attract people to host communities. High population and intense mining activities pose numerous challenges to land use management. The study examined the planning responses to the land use challenges in mining communities in the Tarkwa-Nsuaem Municipality of Ghana. The case study research approach was used to address the research objectives. The study covered the Tarkwa township and its peripheral communities, such as Nsuta, Tamso, New Atuabo and Abonteakoon (Akoon), which were purposively selected. The paper reveals that mining in the Municipality has resulted in increased population without corresponding infrastructure and related services. Due to the intense nature of mining activities coupled with increased population, there has been strong competition over available lands which have resulted in changing land uses outside formal planning schemes, encroachments, and building in waterways and wetlands. The study recommends among others, an effective collaboration between the traditional leaders and city authorities to clearly define the mandate of each stakeholder within the urban land market. There is also a need to build institutional capacity and contextualize planning ideals as key for managing rapidly growing mining towns in emerging economies.

Examining the dynamics of the relationship between water pH and other water quality parameters in ground and surface water systems

“…This causes heavy runoffs and leaching of surface soil chemicals. The area was selected for this study due to the high-level of anthropogenic activities including mining activities, welding and other mechanical servicing activities that serve as the main sources of pollution to water supply systems [ 19 , 20 ].…”

Modelling of total dissolved solids in water supply systems using regression and supervised machine learning approaches

“…The datasets were taken from Tarkwa, a mining (mainly gold and manganese) community and the capital of Tarkwa-Nsuaem Municipal Assembly, Western Region, Ghana. The area was selected for this study due to high-level pollution of water supply systems from mining activities (Bhattacharya et al 2012;Ewusi et al 2017a, b;Baah-Ennumh and Adom-Asamoah 2019). The area is located between latitudes 4° 0ʹ 0″ N and 5° 40ʹ 0″ N and longitudes 1° 45ʹ 0″ W and 2° 1ʹ 0″ W. Figure 1 shows the location and geological setting of the study area using QGIS.…”