A Former Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, Inusah Fuseini has said that persons flouting the laws of Ghana to engage in illegal small scale
A Former Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, Inusah Fuseini has said that persons flouting the laws of Ghana to engage in illegal small scale mining cannot be treated mildly.
He says their actions are having dire consequences on the water bodies, the environment and the health of the people.
Mobilizing the people against galamsey, he said, is probably the way forward in tackling the menace.
Speaking on Joy FMs NewsFile on Saturday September 17, the former Member of Parliament for Tamale Central said “people should go to the hospitals and see whether we are recording stillbirths or not and others over the chemicals used for galamsey.”
He added “the water bodies are dead, the water bodies we have now can’t support aquatic life. We are taking away from people their means of livelihood, we cannot be treating those destroying our water bodies with kid gloves.”
Regarding this galamsey issue, Former Secretary to the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Illegal Mining (IMCIM), Mr. Charles Bissue, said the fight against the illegal practice can be won,
“It must be transparent and the monitoring must be sustained,” he said on the Key Points on TV3 Saturday September 17 when host Martin Asiedu Darteh asked whether the government can win the fight.
Meanwhile, the Director of Finance for the Ghana National Association of Small Scale Miners, Francis Opoku has said members of his association do not destroy water bodies.
He explained that they need clean water to wash the minerals therefore, they cannot be the ones destroying the water bodies.
READ ALSO: What is wrong if soldiers kill illegal miners? – Energy expert asks
Opoku explained that the illegal small scale miners (Galamseyers) are the ones mostly seen mining in rivers thereby, destroying the water.
Speaking on the Key Points on TV3 Saturday September 17, he said these galamseyrs are mostly from “Benin, Togo, they have the expertise to swim.”
“A lot of these people are not Ghanaians in the first place,” he stressed.
Tamale North Member of Parliament, Alhassan Suhuyini also said the Akufo-Addo administration is not committed to the fight against illegal small scale mining (Galamsey).
He said the government has only been engaged in rhetoric when it comes to fighting the menace.
Speaking also on the Key Points, he explained that it was the Media Coalition against illegal small scale mining which is made up of some journalists, who took it upon themselves to highlight the dangers of galamsey and the need for it to stop.
It was only after this that the government started initiating some moves to deal with the situation.
‘The government was not really committed to the fight against galamsey,” Suhuyini stressed.
He added “They have only engaged in rhetoric and waste of money money.”
The government has been trying to deal with the activities of these miners.
A taskforce has been set up to that effect.
COMMENTS