Minister hints of intervention against mining in river bodies

Alhaji Yussif Sulemana, the Deputy Minister of Lands and Natural Resources has revealed government’s plans to initiate interventions against mining on river bodies in Ghana, especially the Black Volta River.

He said the government had planned to introduce the “Blue Water Guard” initiative to recruit and train people living along the Black Volta River to guard against illegal activities, such as illegal mining in the river.

Alhaji Sulemana, also the Member of Parliament for the Bole-Bamboi Constituency, revealed this in Wa at the weekend, in an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA) on the sidelines of the inauguration and swearing-in of the Upper West Regional Lands Commission Board.

He said President John Dramani Mahama’s government had declared war against mining on river bodies and in the forest and had put in stringent measures to protect those resources.

“Let me announce that very soon people who are living around the boundaries of the Black Volta, we are going to employ them into what we call the Blue Water Initiative.

Their responsibility is to trigger or give us notification that there are people on the water body destroying it, and then we now get the appropriate law-enforcement agencies to go flush them out”, he explained.

Alhaji Sulemana indicated that the initiative would commence in the Upper West Region through to the Savanna Region and all communities along the Black Volta River.

Illegal miming activities on the Black Volta River along the Wa West District in the Upper West Region had raised serious concerns among well-meaning Ghanaians as the river served as a source of water for many people, including people in Wa.

Mr Peter Lanchene Toobu, the Member of Parliament for the Wa West Constituency recently toured some communities along the river in the constituency, to ascertain the level of destruction the illegal mining had caused to the river.

The Upper West Regional Police Command also recently arrested seven individuals for mining on the Black Volta River at Kyeatanga, a community near Dorimon, in the Wa West District.

Alhaji Sulemana, however, said people who were engaged in dry land illegal mining would be organised into cooperatives, trained and supported to engage in responsible “medium scale” mining and to reclaim the lands after the mining.

“For those who are on dry land, the approach is that let’s sit with them, let’s regularise their activities, let’s support them with technology, let’s support them with the necessary funds so that they are able to identify where exactly the gold deposit is”, the Minister explained.

From Philip Tengzu, Wa

GNA

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