The Deputy Minister of Lands and Natural Resources and Member of Parliament for Tarkwa Nsuaem, Mr. George Meriku Duker, has stated that the government of Ghana will take delivery and commission five speed boats aimed at fighting galamsey on river bodies in the country.
According to him, this measure is been adopted by the government to ensure that river bodies across the country are protected from the activities of illegal miners and other individuals whose activities are destroying the river bodies.
Mr. Duker revealed that as part of the fight, the government will build permanent river wardens placed along the river banks at major galamsey sites and with the speed boats they can detect and report the movement of galamsayers at any point.
This, he said the Naval Unit of the Ghana Armed Forces has been tasked to train the galamsey taskforce and river guards to constantly petrol the river bodies in Ghana to report any wrong doing on the rivers in relation to galamsey activities.
“We need to get permanent solution on mining in our river bodies and so the speed boats would be place along the river banks to petrol and check activities of these people who destroy the rivers in the country,” he stated.
Speaking on Adom FM Morning Show monitored by the Republic Press, he said another thing that is being addressed by the ministry is how to detect whether the miner is operating with the right license or the concession is not license so there are erected QR codes sign post placed at the entrance at the concessions.
He added that the government is not pushing these galamseyers out of business but are moving them into what the ministry refers to as Community Mining to equip them with mining equipment, provide human resource support like blending them with mining engineers and geologist who will give them the technical advice on how to mine
Mr. Duker averred that the concept of the Community Mining is to move mining from the river bodies and national reserved to a well-planned area where technical support will be provided to these galamseyers so that their mining activities does not turn to destroy the land.
He added that as part of the strategy, government will provide the galamseyers with concession and the plan is such that no one will be pushed out of business because the moment you move from the river bodies, the concession would be ready.
“So, we are encouraging and begging Ghanaians that we should all stop mining in the river bodies and engage in responsible mining to secure the future of our children and great grandchildren.”
Apart from the Community Mining, there is the need to revegetate or reclaim the destroyed lands and the ministry have started around the Konongo municipality in the Ashanti Region by planting palm trees and others depending on the rich nature of the soil.
He called on all Ghanaians to rally behind the ministry and the government of Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo’s government to bring sanity to the mining menace in the country.
