United Front Needed In Fight Against Illegal Mining

It is impressive to observe how the Ministry of Defence is in a very close collaboration with the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources and Ministry for Sanitation and Water Resource on the ongoing campaign against illegal small scale mining.

It is a beautiful team work which is being done in collaboration with several other relevant stakeholders and in no time, positive results are beginning to emerge. It is not time to celebrate yet, but at least the winning sings are encouraging and deserves a mention.

Regional Ministers in charge of the affected regions have also shown commitment to the campaign and deserve encouragement and commendation.

Eastern Regional Minister, Seth Acheampong, for instance is one of such ministers that stand tall and has adopted a hands-on approach in the fight.

While allowing the laws to work, Seth Acheampong is at the same time educating his people on the campaign and the fact that the end results would be in the greater interest of the nation rather than the selfish interest of a few individuals.

He recently told the people of his Region that: “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”,

If the fight continues this way, the prospects of winning and reclaiming our lands and water bodies would indeed continue to be bright and promising.

It is also significant to note how government has not backed down on the anti illegal-mining campaign despite a strong opposition, threats and lobbying from the beneficiaries of the nation-wreaking activity.

The campaign would have been even more effective if the respective Municipal, Metropolitan and District Chief Executives whose areas are affected by the activities of these illegal miners had been more proactive.

Sadly, a good number of them have not really done much to deserve applauds.

A good number of them have simply slept on their jobs at the local levels and should be ashamed for standing akimbo and watching with a gleeful glee on their faces as the fight gets taken over by government officials at the very top.

What is the use of a DCE or MCE who cannot champion an anti illegal mining campaign but would wait for instructions from Accra?

In as much as The Thunder is excited about the collaboration among the ministries mentioned above, it is the paper’s hope that the various local authorities would be more involved and show real commitment in dealing with the menace at the grassroots.