Central regional chairman of the Liberal Party Of Ghana and 2020 parliamentary candidate for Agona East constituency, Samuel Aryeequaye has suggested to the president, Nana Addo Danquah Akuffo Addo to close down all community mining companies for sometime and introduce strict regulations because they have become a hindrance to the governments WAR against Galamsey.
Speaking to the media, the UN Best Diplomat’s representative described the Community mining scheme as ‘Galamsey Pro-Max’ According to him, the said initiative is no different from galamsey, it is the same practice with a polished name.
The Ghanaian government has been fighting illegal mining for many years, but despite efforts and massive investments, the situation seems to get worse almost every day.
Over the years, galamsey operations have destroyed majority of the country’s agricultural lands and contaminated many water bodies. As a result, there are already water shortages in various parts of the nation. The saddest part of this is that most of these illegal galamsey operations are carried out by Chinese nationals who use heavy machinery in their illegal activity.
The president, through the minister in charge of Lands and Natural Resources, Samuel Abu Jinapor, introduced a new module [Community Mining Scheme] to replace the antiquated and more harmful galamsey practices and also to empower mining communities economically as part of efforts to regulate small-scale mining activities in the nation.
Samuel Aryeequaye says all these community mining companies must be closed down with immediate effect if the government is indeed serious about this fight.
He claims that many illegal miners are operating in secret behind these community mining companies, further polluting the nation’s water supplies and damaging its agricultural land meanwhile this initiative was introduced to sanitize the system.
He is absolutely confident that if these community mining firms continue to function, the government’s investment in the fight against galamsey will be in vain.
Ghana | Atinkaonline.com