A few weeks ago, the Minister for Lands and Natural Resources, Mr Samuel Abu Jinapor, ordered individuals and companies engaged in prospecting in forest reserves with or without legal authorisation to stop.
He further directed the Minerals Commission to immediately suspend acceptance, processing or recommending the grant, including renewal or extension of reconnaissance and prospecting licences in Forest Reserves.
The Minister’s decision follows the revelation that a number of individuals and companies unlawfully acquire licences under the pretext of undertaking reconnaissance or prospecting in Forest Reserves and yet proceed to engage in illegal mining in such Forest Reserves, with its obvious adverse consequences on the environment.
This directive was followed by the deployment of 200 military personnel on River Pra in the Western and Central regions by President Akufo-Addo to remove all persons engaged in mining in water bodies and to ensure that mining within water bodies is immediately stopped.
However, news making rounds indicates that Members of the Association of Small Scale Miners (ASSM) are not happy about the development. Their unhappiness, they claim, is based on the fact that they are being used as scapegoats, whilst the real problems are being swept under the carpet. They also regret the perception that their activities had polluted water bodies and the environment.
The group has, therefore, decided to convey a meeting to discuss the new directives and issue a communique on their action plan.
We at The Chronicle would admonish the ASSM to put the interest of the country first.
The ASSM should come to grips with the fact that halting the activities of prospecting in the forest reserves is a better way to sanitise the situation and to also ensure that the right persons get to work.
Already, the Ghana Water Company Limited has warned of a possible scarcity of potable water in the near future if the pollution of water bodies is not addressed.
Although improper agricultural activities along water bodies, crude oil dumping, discharge of untreated urban domestic waste and contamination of other industrial processes are contributing factors to water pollution. The GWCL says activities of galamsey, in particular, have polluted our water bodies beyond treatment.
The Chronicle believes the fight against illegal mining is in the right direction and calls on the ASSM to throw their weight behind it. But as we encourage the ASSM to support the government, we also admonish government to ensure that we win this fight.
We were all in this country when the Akufo-Addo administration waged war against galamsey in their first term. After investing a lot of resources, including the establishment of the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Mining, Operation Vanguard and Galamstop taskforce, all in a bid to put an end to illegal mining, the fight was not successful due to varied reasons.
Hundreds of seized galamsey excavators at the various assemblies went missing while some Operation Vanguard members who were supposed to help stop people from mining rather allegedly extorted monies from these illegal miners. We are, therefore, appealing to the government to ensure that we win the fight this time round and avoid mistakes of the past.
The post Editorial: The galamsey fight must succeed! appeared first on The Chronicle Online.
Read Full Story
Facebook
Twitter
Pinterest
Instagram
Google+
YouTube
LinkedIn
RSS