Galamsey fight: Nobody will be spared, don’t cross the line – Minister

The Eastern Regional Minister, Seth Kwame Acheampong says government is resolute in the renewed fight against illegal mining saying nobody found culpable will be spared.

The Minister explained that government is not against mining but against the illegality in the sector destroying water bodies.

“The evidence is before us, what I plead with all of us is that we are not against mining but we are against mining activities which are irregular, not regulated by a governed state like which is regulated by rule of law and so we are going to fight every person. The regulation says do not mine within a 100m perimeter to water body and so we are encouraging every person who wants to do their business to go ahead and do their business, however, please don’t cross the line because when you cross the line you will not find the law entertain you, the law will come after you”.

The Regional Minister made the remarks when the Minister for Sanitation and Water Resource visited Eastern Region to inspect the state of the Birim River and Water treatment plants and intake points along the Birim River.

The Minister for Sanitation and Water Resources, Cecilia Dapaah led experts at the water resource commission to inspect and assess the state of the Birim River and Water treatment Plants at Kyebi, Bunso and Osino.

Addressing the media, the minister expressed worry over the devastation of lands along the Birim River and the muddying of raw water supply by the illegal miners. She called on Ghanaians to support President Akufo-Addo’s fight against illegal mining to help protect water bodies in the country.

“We’ve seen the devastations of the land as well as the complete muddying of our water body called brim. The three places we’ve been to, the projects are all on the Birim river and as we all saw, Kyebi has the cleanest water source with a turbidity of 11NTU which is within the acceptable International unit. Then we came to Bunso, and you all heard from the manager there that when they took the sample in the morning the turbidity was 1900NTU then in the afternoon -mid-morning getting to the afternoon they took and it was 330NTU. From the explanation, they have given when we were asleep some people were working on the river body hence the deepening of the muddy and rising of the turbidity levels.”

She added, “We’ve come here and am very sad honestly, very very sad looking at the fact that some people had the audacity to divert the Birim river to form pools for washing their metals and using chemicals which goes deep into the river.”

The Eastern Regional Minister said government is determined in the fight against the menace and anybody who infringes the regulation will not be spared.