Lands minister declares war on galamsey amid water shortage fears

Amid heightened fears about the devastating impact of illegal mining, the Minister for Lands and Natural Resources, Samuel A. Jinapor, has assured of immediate actions by the government to tackle the menace.

While downplaying suggestions that the government had taken its foot off the pedal in the galamsey fight, the Minister disclosed that the government will hold an emergency meeting on the matter.

He added that the security forces will be immediately deployed to areas affected by the canker and will deal vigorously with the situation.

Speaking on Joy FM's Super Morning Show, the Minister expressed conviction that the new moves by the government will culminate in a total remediation of the situation and restore the country’s water and forest resources.

“We are going to have the review today, and I’m 1,000% certain that we are going to deploy. We are going to ramp up our enforcement measures. So all these places you are talking about, we are going to have a cleanup there.

“We are going to have a complete swoop. We are going to send law enforcement agencies to take a swoop of that whole stretch, particularly the Central Region. You can be rest assured of that, and you can monitor that,” he said.

“So we’re going to conduct the review today, and within the next 24 hours, we’re going to find the resources and move them,” he said.

The assurance comes on the back of recent calls by the public for the government to step up the anti-galamsey efforts following a statement by the Ghana Water Company Limited that it has been forced to ration water supply to parts of Cape Coast, Winneba, and Mankessim due to the activities of illegal mining on its water sources.