President of the Concerned Small-Scale Miners Association of Ghana, Michael Peprah, has warned that the use of the military in the fight against galamsey will yield no results.
He explained that over the years successive governments have employed military force in the fight against galamsey and yet there has been no favourable result.
Michael, during an interview with Samuel Eshun on the Happy Morning Show, stated that the fight against galamsey has bee futile because organizations that have been tasked to monitor these illegal activities have been neglected.
“Since 1988, soldiers have been used and that is the approach we have used till now. It has never yielded any result. Sometimes I don’t know the reason why actions that do not yield results are what we always resort to. The only explanation one can give for this phenomenon may be that the authorities benefit from the use of the military. But we are yet to ascertain if that is the case. You cannot do the same things and expect different results. Why do we worry the military with the fight against Galamsey? Meanwhile, the Forestry Commission has forest guards who have been trained to protect our forest reserves. There are also rules and regulations that also help.
EPA is also underequipped. So, if we don’t focus on empowering these organizations in charge of monitoring and we continue to use the military, we will not have favourable results for the country”.
Michael Peprah charged the government to amend its ways before all efforts to fight galamsey prove futile.
The Minister for Lands and Natural Resources, Samuel A. Jinapor, says government will, this year, begin a programme to reclaim and revegetate mined-out areas in the country.
The programme, “Reclamation of Degraded Lands”, which is to be spearheaded by the Ministry through the Minerals Commission, seeks to reclaim degraded lands caused by illegal mining.
Earlier this year, the government deployed 200 military personnel to flush out illegal miners destroying water bodies in the country. The government announced that this action was the outcome of a recent stakeholders’ dialogue on small-scale mining.
