“Mining is like a search-and-destroy mission” (Stuart Udall). Mining is a difficult occupation, since it takes up time searching different areas of land to get the ore and then destroying that land to get the ore. Mining is difficult because you have to explore the land for metal ores or other minerals from a mine like gold and when you find it you destroy that area of land to extract the metal ore. This has a huge impact on our surroundings and life. There are three effects of mining which include water resources, social and air quality.
The first effect of mining is water resources. The effect of water resources includes acid mine drainage and dewatering. Acid mine drainage is often a problem at metal mines such as gold, copper and silver
The effect of social includes livelihood and public health. Livelihood is securing your needs but when mining activities are not properly managed there’s degraded soils, biodiversity and forest resources. When pollution is not controlled the cost of it is passed on to other economic activities like agriculture. Sometime mining takes place in areas where there’s a high population rate, these areas then get polluted because of mining (Adjei, 2007). Mining also has a huge impact on public health and a part of that reason is the pollution that is caused by mining. Hazardous substances and waste in water and air are released when mining have increased mortality and the number or illness. Mining activities can immediately affect the quality of life and the well-being of people life (“Overview of Mining and its Impacts,” n.d.). In my opinion, public health is at risk because of the pollutants present in the air, water and soil that have been emitted through mining, also the livelihood of people is being violated as they cannot control the amount of pollution and the place where mining is going to take place. If the mining site is near to the area where they live they would have to move elsewhere to get away from the