President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has reiterated that he will do everything within his power to end activities of galamsey within our water bodies.
According to him, this is the government’s pledge to resolve to protect the country’s mineral resources.
Addressing a gathering on Monday, President Akufo-Addo called for sustainable and responsible small-scale mining.
“It is to ensure that mining is carried out in a responsible manner as was done by our ancestors and in line with international best practices and conventions across all levels of operations. This, will in addition to helping eliminate the associated and negative practices, ensure that small-scale mining supports government’s drive to optimise the earnings from mining in pursuit of progress, development and prosperity for all Ghanaians.
“When I called for a national dialogue on small scale mining, I was convinced and I am still convinced that small scale mining should and can be done sustainably and that several of our compatriots who are mining responsibly and are applying the protocols which have been established by the Minerals Commission, government will continue to support them and offer them its support,” the President said.
The President assured that the government will deploy appropriate measures to safeguard the environment.
“Let me assure you the government will not relent in its efforts to flush them out of the ecosystem. In accordance with Article 36(9) of the Constitution of the Republic, government will continue to deploy appropriate measures needed to help, protect and safeguard our national environment for posterity,” President Akufo-Addo added.
A special military operation began to remove all persons and logistics involved in mining from Ghana’s water bodies last year.
The action follows a directive of President Akufo-Addo to the Ghana Armed Forces (GAF).
Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, Information Minister said in a statement that “to help protect the environment we had to take far-reaching measures such as involving the Police and Military in ‘Operation Halt’ as well as decommissioning and demobilising machines and equipment used for illegal mining in the forest reserve and water bodies which have been designated red zones for mining.”
“They were necessary to halt and reverse the trend of ever-increasing turbidity of our waters and the continuing degradation of our lands and to safeguard our environment for posterity,” he stressed.
Posted by: Emmanuel Romeo Tetteh
