The Small-Scale Miners Association of Ghana has accused the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) government of encouraging illegal mining activities in forest reserves and river bodies in the country.
According to Michael Peprah, the President of the Association, the menace of illegal mining which has heavily polluted the majority of Ghana’s rivers is escalating because some powerful persons in the Akufo-Addo government are sponsoring individuals to mine in riverbodies and forest reserves.
Peprah’s concerns follow a public outcry over the devastation of illegal mining, also known as galamsey, on the environment.
The government recently deployed military personnel to clamp down on the activities of galamsey to save the river bodies and forests that are being plowed indiscriminately.
In an interview with TV XYZ, Michael Peprah called for a ban on chanfan machines which are used by illegal miners on various rivers to mine gold.
“These machines are imported into the country by these illegal miners and they end up on our river bodies in search of gold. The operators of these machines end up polluting the rivers and we the licensed small-scale miners are blamed for their crimes,” he stated.
Peprah believes some licensed small-scale miners are responsible for the pollution of the rivers, he hastened that such people are linked to powerful people in government who will not be arrested by the government’s task force sanctioned to curb illegal mining.
“Truth is, these people who are destroying our forest reserves and polluting the rivers are these NPP people,” Peprah hinted.
“They have powerful people in the NPP government supporting them and that has emboldened them to enter forest reserves to mine,” he alleged while explaining that in some cases, such people are given military protection to carry on with galamsey activities.
“We have had the military fighting this illegality before and it did not work. It is because those miners on the rivers are doing so for politicians, and should they be arrested powerful people place calls to big people in the security services to release them,” Peprah recounted in Akan.
In his estimation, until politicians stop engaging in illegal mining, the rivers and forests cannot be saved.
Peprah further mentioned their readiness to collaborate with the government to flush out unlicensed miners from unauthorized locations to ensure the rivers become clean again.
Source: myxyzonline