Galamsey Fight: Deploying 200 soldiers an ill-advised decision – Concerned Small Scale Miners

President of the Concerned Small Scale Miners Association, Michael Peprah says the deployment of 200 soldiers to fight illegal miners along river bodies will not achieve any permanent results.

He believes the government launching an independent fight against galamsey “is a wrong approach”.

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On his accord, galamseyers operate in various communities headed by Chiefs, Committees and Assemblies and these groups are fully aware of the galamsey sites. “If the galamsey fight is to be won, we need to engage all these people. Some communities do not even know galamsey is an 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”.

Micheal admitted that there are some areas where the communities are well aware of galamsey and are vigilant. “Sometimes we go to these areas and they demand our concession and other licenses before allowing us to mine and this is because they have been sensitized”.

On his authority, if a large scale sensitization exercise had taken place, community leaders would have given out locations of these illegal mining sites “and it would have solved the problem by 60 percent”.

“Until we include Chiefs, Committees and other local leaders in this fight, we will not achieve any results”, he said in an interview with Samuel Eshun on the Happy Morning Show aired on e.TV Ghana and Happy98.9FM.

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Background

A contingent of 200 troops has been deployed to clamp down on illegal mining activities destroying the country’s water bodies.

President Akufo-Addo directed the Ghana Armed Forces (GAF) to deploy the soldiers in a renewed effort against illegal mining.

A statement from the Information Ministry, which made the announcement, said the team commenced the operation on Wednesday, April 28, 2021, on the River Pra in the Central and Western Regions.

It added that the move was to ensure that mining within water bodies is immediately stopped.

This latest action to fight the menace, popularly known as galamsey, comes after the Stakeholder Dialogue on Small Scale Mining on April 14.