Government is not against mining – Amewu

Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, Mr. John Peter Amewu has assured Ghanaians that despite the readiness of government to fight illegal mining due to its distraction to the environment, the Nana Addo-led administration is not against mining.

Speaking on the sidelines with the media at the launch of a joint galamsey task force coded “Operation Vanguard” in Accra today, the Minister said, government is not against mining but the methodology employed by some miners was wrong thus destroying farmlands and water bodies.

According to the minister, government has allocated sufficient resources to the deployed team to fight the galamsey menace.

“This is not going to be a piecemeal approach to go in and come out, rather it is going to be a sustainable approach,” he said.

He said, the team were deployed to Eastern, Western and the Ashanti regions because of the gravity of damage caused by illegal miners there but they will rotate as and when information is picked.

“They are expected to help salvage the polluted water sources, farmlands and forests caused by the activities of the illegal miners,” he added.

According to him, about three hundred and twenty-eight thousand kilometres square of Ghanaian landscape has been degraded due to galamsey activities.

Four hundred security men drawn from the Ghana Police Service, Navy and the Ghana Army were deployed to Western, Ashanti and Eastern regions to counter the activities of illegal miners.

The taskforce is headed by Colonel William Agyapong who is deputized by Chief Superintendent Abraham Aquaye