The Ministry for Environment, Science and Technology, says District, Municipal and the Metropolitan assemblies should blamed for the canker of illegal mining.
The sector minister, Mahama Ayariga, who spoke on the Citi Breakfast Show maintained that local law enforcement agencies at the various districts have not been protective enough, allowing illegal mining to fester over the years.
[contextly_sidebar id=”XNRIMqkGnEkrCdfeIMVkVCF0ckHJ66vR”]“We are being failed by our own law enforcement agencies at the local level… Some of the activities are such that I believe that we have the capacity at the local level, in terms of law enforcement to stop the activities from taking place,” he said.
His remarks follow renewed concerns over the destruction and pollution of the River Tano which serves the Ghana water treatment plant at Abesim near Sunyani, Abarikese dam and the shutdown of Kyebi and Daboase water treatment plants due to the effects of illegal mining.
MMDAs Security Councils should take charge
Despite the existence of an Inter-Ministerial task-force to combat the illegal mining, Mr. Ayariga held that the inter-Ministerial team could not be expected to be “running around every day, everywhere. Every piece of land falls within a district.”
“When you have large numbers at one location all digging, using earth moving equipment, at that stage, a district police post cannot tell me that they cannot stop that. You are trained to be able to stop that so if you cannot stop that then we are all in trouble,” he said.
At the local level, Mr. Ayariga noted that, there exists District or Municipal Security Councils that should be championing the fight against illegal mining in their various areas.
“So the local Security Council has the police commander there. It has the Immigration Director, it has the customs officer. It has an Armed Forces person there. They are all in the Municipal or District Security Council. Within that area, if there is any activity which requires the support of law enforcement, you want the Interior Minister to come down to tell you to stop illegal mining here? They know!” he argued.
What is the Ministry doing?
Mr. Ayariga has indicated that his Ministry is working closely with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), to combat illegal mining at the district level, saying attacking the purse of the various MMDAs could yield some positive effects.
The Minister revealed that, he has “directed the EPA to hit the local government authorities where it hurts them the most; which is their GDF… The GDF comes from development partners so I have been working with EPA to add environmental issues as one of the criteria to determine how much money an assembly gets.”
“We believe with that; we will be able get the assemblies to get more serious in terms of stopping illegal mining activities within their various jurisdiction,” he added.
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By: Delali Adogla-Bessa/citifmonline.com/Ghana