Fighting galamsey: Allow us destroy mining equipment 2km radius of rivers – Soldier

A soldier with the Operation Halt team commissioned to fight illegal small scale mining along the rivers of the country has appealed to the authorities to review the law that says they can only destroy mining equipment within 100 meters radius of rivers.

According to the soldier, to achieve the desired result of reclaiming the land and restoring the river to its natural state, they should be given the mandate to destroy all mining equipment within two kilometers radius of rivers.

The soldier said this in a trending video near a heavily polluted river with a Chinese he had arrested for engaging in the illegal act.

In the video, two large tubes connecting to pumping plants are submerged in the river. According to the armed soldier, one tube supplies water to an illegal mining site about a kilometer away while the other returns dirty wastewater from washing the gold into the river to further pollute it.

In the video, the soldier narrates: “So you see it, this is the problem, these guys are well established with machines, plants. They have two plants, one supplying water to their site which is about a kilometer from here, then when they wash the gold, when they wash the gold, they now discharge the water through the second plant into the river. So one of the pipes is supplying their washing machine which is about a kilometer from here, and one is discharging water, the wastewater into the river, polluting the river. So this is the main problem, you see. The guys are operating beyond 100 metres from the river, yet their establishments are causing so much destruction to the river. So the caveat we are operating with, the 100-metre caveat is not feasible, it’s not feasible if we need to really deal with this issue head-on.

“So you see it, this is the problem, these guys are well established with machines, plants. They have two plants, one supplying water to their site which is about a kilometer from here, then when they wash the gold, when they wash the gold, they now discharge the water through the second plant into the river. So one of the pipes is supplying their washing machine which is about a kilometer from here, and one is discharging water, the wastewater into the river, polluting the river. So this is the main problem, you see. The guys are operating beyond 100 metres from the river, yet their establishments are causing so much destruction to the river. So the caveat we are operating with, the 100-metre caveat is not feasible, it’s not feasible if we need to really deal with this issue head-on.”