Galamsey menace: Stop all mining operations for six months - Kwesi Pratt suggests

Seasoned Journalist, Kwesi Pratt Jnr. has called on the government to put all mining activities in Ghana on hold for half a year.

A joint team of Ghana Armed Forces, Ghana Navy and the Ghana Air Force have commenced an operation dubbed 'Operation Halt' aimed at ending galamsey.

Their operation has been sanctioned by the Lands and Natural Resources Minister, Samuel Abu Jinapor and Defence Minister, Dominic Nitiwul.

This follows the president's directive to the soldiers to remove all persons and machinery involved in illegal mining.

To deter the illegal miners, their excavators are seized and burnt by the joint military team.

Addressing the galamsey menace and the government's approach to end it, Kwesi Pratt advised the government to stop all mining operations, whether large-scale, small-scale or galamsey, for six months and restrategize to find ways of conducting gold mining appropriately.

According to him, this method will help to resolve the illegal mining menace.

"The gold mining should be halted. Whether small-scale or large-scale mining, let us stop it for about six (6) months and patiently put the right measures in place to ensure the gold mining is done in a way that won't cause any destruction," he told stand-in host Nana Yaw Kesseh on Peace FM's 'Kokrokoo' programme, Tuesday.