The Council of State has backed calls for a total review of Ghana’s small scale mining laws. Chairman of the council, Nana Otuo Serebour, said it is evident that current laws have failed to sanitize the sector.
Members of the Council of State commenced a tour of illegal mining areas in the Eastern Region on Friday. The tour will also take them to the Ashanti and Western Regions.
The tour is to get members of the Council well informed on the devastating effects of illegal mining so as to influence the appropriate recommendations to the President.
Addressing journalists after touring some of these mining sites, the Chairman of the council, Nana Otuo Serebour, expressed disappointment at the level of devastation caused by illegal miners. #
He stated, ” We are devastated, it is so bad, its terrible. The English man will say it cataclysmic. It means it’s beyond this world. It is terrible. We are going to take a look at the the totality of the mining environment. The enabling laws, the supervisory and the regularity bodies and their roles and responsibilities, to come up the appropriate recommendation.
Nana Otuo Serebour added, “we are really appalled at the way our system has made this possible. A whole lot of failures, in terms of the regulatory bodies, the licencing authorities, the supervising authorities, the security aspect, the monitoring and evaluation of the operation. The laws are there to be obeyed. Even if you’re farming you have to go by the regulated farming practices, and they are not observing those practices and that has aggravated the situation. This is really very bad.”
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By: Kojo Agyeman/citifmonline.com/Ghana.