A civil Society group in the mining sector, WACAM, is calling for a decisive action from government against all forms of what they term irresponsible mining.
The group contends that, though the recent wave of public advocacy against illegal mining referred to as Galamsey is commendable, similar efforts should be targeted at large and small scale mining firms engaged in mining practices that destroy the environment.
Executive Director of WACAM, Hannah Koranteng, told Citi News ,“There is the need to dis-aggregate the whole process of irresponsible mining. I call it irresponsible mining because you have the multinational companies also getting involved in some level of this illegality. We have the small scale miners who are supposed to be mining also getting involved in the illegality, and then we have those with no authorization at all also getting involved.”
“Once we are able to dis-aggregate the whole stages of irresponsible mining, we should back the actions with some level of education and sensitization. With this, I would call on the President and his government to strengthen institutions, political will, and then we also need political direction because if we want to completely reduce the problems created by mining, then we should have better regulatory bodies,” she added.
There has been intense pressure on government in recent times to stop illegal miners from polluting water bodies and farmlands.
Analysts have predicted that Ghana may soon import water if the trend persists.
This is because a number of water treatment plants have been shut down because their sources of water have been rendered useless due to galamsey activities.
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(Via: CitiFM Online Ghana)
