Chinese deliberately engaging in illegal mining to destroy our cocoa business - Mpraeso MP

Member of Parliament (MP) for Mpraeso Constituency in the Eastern Region, Davis Opoku has accused some Chinese nationals of deliberately destroying water bodies and lands with illegal mining activities.

The motive of these Chinese, he explained, is to take over the cocoa industry which has been the backbone of Ghana's economy by engaging in illegal mining.

Speaking on Okay FM's Ade Akye Abia Morning Show, Hon Davis Opoku alluded to the fact that the Chinese are destroying the country's water bodies with chemicals so that the polluted water will destroy the cocoa beans and will not get the world market values, paving way for the Chinese who are also now growing cocoa in China.

" . . the European Union has already cautioned against the undervalue cocoa beans, hence the Chinese people gradually pushing the country's major source of economic growth to the ditch and take over the market with their cocoa which they took from Ghana . . ."

". . it is a deliberate effort of the Chinese people to destroy our lands with illegal mining and then sell their cocoa in Europe and so I am happy that the President, H.E. Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has decided to fight illegal mining," he noted.

He bemoaned that Praso No.1, a community in his constituency is confronted with a similar challenge as a mining company intends to operate in alluvial mining in the Praso River which supplies water to the community that produces a large scale of cocoa in the constituency.

He stressed that the alluvial mining if permitted to go on will poison the only source of water for the people and their farming activities; thus, there is already a water challenge which is why the government is undertaking water projects at Kwahu, Konongo, and Kumawu.

Professing solution to the illegal mining activities by the Chinese people, the Mpraeso lawmaker called on President Akufo-Addo to institute an inter-ministerial agency to solely handle the licensing and the permission of gold mining so as to avoid systemic problem existing among the EPA, Minerals Commission, and the Forestry Commission in terms of the license and permit.

"I think it is also a systemic problem because as part of our activities in giving license to people to engage in mining, the government has to put together an inter-ministerial agency to regulate or provide the license and the permit so that we avoid the challenge of calling EPA, Minerals Commission and Forestry Commission to find out how some people got the license and the permit to operate," he indicated.

" . . one of the best solutions to the challenge is to have one inter-ministerial agency in charge of gold, giving license, so that if something goes wrong we can hold that agency responsible," he stressed.