Complicated Problem Of How To Deal With Artisanal Mining Pollution

The global population of small scale, artisanal miners(10-15 million) and their production has increased rapidly along with the rise in the price of gold. ,
This activity has become so detrimental to the environment that it's effects far exceed the localities of where they mine.
Pressure is being exerted on those governments to enact legislation that will foster the abatement of the air and water pollution that is spreading exponentially.
This outcry has caused a difficult set of problems inherint with long standing practices of survival for indigenous people and their traditional way of life.
Like most dynamic change to the status quo, a near epidemic must be realized before action is taken, and that action, if not tempered with regard to those affected at the lowest level, will be chaotic.
Governments cannot simply outlaw harmful practices without giving alternatives. And those alternatives must be fed slowly into the mainstream so the daily income of the miners is not cut off. Survival will always trump legislation and if not done right will always foster revolt.
One way to achive this goal is the introduction of technologies that will allow a transition from old to new tecniques that the miners can accept and adopt without loss of income.