The government’s new approach to dealing with the current rise in the illegal mining menace has been outrightly rejected by the Media Coalition Against Galamsey.
In its latest effort, the government through the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources, has mandated all Regional Ministers across the country to lead the various Regional Security Councils (REGSEC) to enforce the fight in their jurisdictions.
A statement released by the Ministry on Wednesday partly read that “the Regional Ministers, alongside their respective Regional Security Councils (REGSEC), have been mandated to intensify enforcement actions within their various jurisdictions to contain incidents of illegal small-scale mining.”
However, the Media Coalition Against Galamsey believes this approach by the government fails to acknowledge the deep crisis the country is grappling with.
In an exclusive interview with The High Street Journal, Convener of the Coalition, Dr. Kenneth Ashigbey insisted that the approach announced by the sector minister is just a rehash of the old methods which have failed to yield the intended results.
“We are in a crisis and if you read the statement from the Minister for Lands and Natural Resources, there is nothing new in what the Minister is saying. All the things that the Minister is stating, we have done all of that and we still have the turbidity of the water at 14000NTU,” he told The High Street Journal.
He further revealed that “there is a student of KNUST who just went home to come back for his mid-sem. He is fallen into a pit and he is dead. There are parents who lost two of their children in a pit. You have water treatment plants that are being shut down and if the minister wants to continue the same thing that we were doing, how is that going to solve our problem.”
Dr. Ken Ashigbey says this approach by the Minister to repeat the old methods is a testament that he does not really appreciate what he describes as the “gravity of the genocidal challenges” the menace is posing to the citizens of the country.
“It will not be resolved with the things that he is saying,” he insisted.
According to the convener of the coalition, drastic measures such as a declaration of a state of emergency in all illegal mining areas to allow the government to fully take control of the situation is most appropriate.
The coalition is further calling on the enforcement of the laws against illegal since there are sufficient laws already in place.
“We are in a crisis, so we need that state of emergency to be declared over the water bodies, over the areas that are part of the water bodies. We have laws in this country that declare that as illegal. So it is not about banning them, it is just about enforcing the laws,” he stated.
