200 soldiers not enough to flush out ‘galamsey’ - Gov’t advised

The Small-Scale Miners Association of Ghana has advised the Government to reconsider the number of soldiers deployed to do away with galamsey in mining areas.

President of the Association, Michael Peprah, reasoned that this 200 personnel cannot cover all the mining areas where water bodies are being polluted as a result of mining.

Speaking to Samuel Eshun on the Happy Morning Show, he explained: “200 soldiers are not enough because we have over 12 major rivers that are all polluted in Ghana. So even if you are deploying these and segmenting them, how many of them can do the work?”.

Michael shared that in his opinion, deploying the 200 personnel in the first place is a hasty decision even though the motive may be right.

He believed that the Government should have consulted various stakeholders before executing an operation involving the security personnel.

“If the galamsey fight is to be won, we need to engage all these people. Some communities do not even know galamsey is illegality and those who are informed sometimes do not care about the damage caused. For government to achieve its objective, it should have carried out sensitization exercises before deploying these soldiers”, he explained.

Background

President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has authorized the Ghana Armed Forces to deploy 200 soldiers to go after all persons involved in illegal mining popularly known as galamsey.

A release from the Information Ministry stated that the move is to ensure that mining within water bodies is immediately stopped. This latest action to fight galamsey comes after the Stakeholder Dialogue on Small Scale Mining on April 14.

The statement added that the operation commenced on Wednesday, April 28th, 2021, on the River Pra in the Central and Western regions of Ghana.