'The operations will continue, we are not stopping' - Defence Minister

The Minister for Defence, Dominic Nitiwul, has indicated that the operations being carried out by the Ghana Armed Forces under the directive of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to ensure that water bodies are clean for human consumption are not coming to an end soon.

According to the Bimbilla Member of Parliament(MP), the war waged against galamsey [illegal mining] to clean water for Ghanaians should be a matter of concern for all Ghanaians as it is through collective efforts that will ensure success in the fight.

Briefing the media at the Ministry of Information on the third phase of the ‘Operation Halt’ campaign, Hon Nitiwul noted that the same massive Public Relations(PR) work which was carried out by some Ghanaians for the government to pull out 'Operation Vanguard' in the first attempted fight with all sorts of unfounded allegations are still going on.

He, however, has assured that the government led by President Akufo-Addo is not going to succumb to those who are canvassing against the operations of the soldiers to rid the illegal mining of the water bodies, emphasizing that the soldiers are cleaning the outrides of the rivers and will continue to monitor with the other security agencies to ensure the country has clean rivers again.

“This fight is for all of us; let's join hands and ensure that we succeed in this fight, because even in the first fight when we asked Vanguard to go and work, they wanted the soldiers out and so they came up with all sort of allegation so that we can pull out the soldiers, and you saw what happened when the soldiers were pulled out,” he pleaded.

“It is the same thing that is going on now, people are doing massive PR work for the government to pull out the soldiers, but unfortunately this could not happen this time. They are cleaning the outrides of the rivers and they will continue to monitor with the other security agencies to ensure that we have clean rivers,” he assured.

He bemoaned that the people who are living close to the Birim river and the Akropong township in the Eastern Region are not getting water to drink unless they buy as the rivers have been polluted to the extent that Ghana Water Company cannot treat the water anymore due to the level pollution.

He indicated that countries like Canada, China and India where some of these companies that are mining in the country are coming from forbid the cutting of even trees as it attracts a long jail term in those countries.

After a careful analysis of the last two phases of the operation, the Defence Minister said that the government launched the third phase of Operation Halt II, this time, to cover River Pra, River Offin, River Oda and River Birim in the Eastern Region.

"In these areas, the armed forces moved on the outrides as well as the main rivers to rid illegal mining of these places. The operations started on 14th to 17th May 2021. The operations will continue; there will be a fourth phase to the sixth phase and many other phases because we are not stopping," he insisted.