News:
April 2, 2018
The Eastern Regional Minister, Eric Kwakye Darfour, has said the crusade against illegal mining “galamsey” to get our water bodies clean in the country can be won only if every Ghanaian gets involve in the crusade.
According to the Minister, the crusade needs the collaborative effort of every Ghanaian and should not be left for the security agencies and government alone.
He further noted that “we can succeed”, but people are burnt on engaging in “galamsey”. It is true people say those engaging in those activities are making it, that is why it is difficult to let them stop, if we all join hands media, civil society, town folks and the chiefs especially, he said in an interview with ghanamps.com.
Our chiefs sometimes fall to some of these, “small small”, influence when you brandish a few thousand of cedis in their faces, the security personnel also need to stand firm because money can be tempting because you have been sent on a mission, he lamented.
They need to be strong and support the President’s crusade against “galamsey”, it is not only the precious minerals, those mining rocks and sand and recently there was a commotion in the Northern Part of Ghana, they were not mining gold they were digging sand.
And they were digging into the “Black Volta” and sand too is a mineral, all these must be regulated.
Mr. Eric Kwakye Darfour noted that the regulatory agencies like the Environmental Protection Agency, (EPA) should do what is right, as in most of these cases they are found culpable as they aid and facilitate all these illegal miners, “you see my brother it is sad” he emphasized.
By: Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/ghanamps.com