The Africa Centre for Energy Policy (ACEP), has joined the growing number of groups and individuals supporting Citi FM’s campaign against illegal mining, popularly known as Galamsey.
ACEP declared its support in a statement, saying : “The Africa Centre for Energy Policy (ACEP) supports the emerging national consensus to deal with illegal small scale mining (galamsey) in Ghana. The uncontrolled destruction of the environment for precious minerals, particularly gold, highlights a collective irresponsibility of small scale miners, chiefs, politicians, land sector agencies, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) security agencies and other relevant regulations of the sector who took on while lives, lands, water bodies and cash crops are destroyed to the detriment of both current and unborn generations.”
While declaring its support, ACEP acknowledged the challenges including what it calls “inevitable power” hindering the fight against the fight.
“There are ongoing efforts to respond to the President’s declaration to address the challenges posed by “galamsey”. The Minister for Lands and Natural Resources recently issued a momentum or licensing to small scale operators on a freeze on all small scale mining activities. While these efforts are in the right direction, it must be noted that similar efforts by past governments were not successful due to the complexity of the problem at hand. One major impediement to the success of these efforts has been the inevitable powers behind illegal mining activities.”
Their support comes days after the policy Think Tank IMANI Ghana , threw its weight behind the campaign dubbed #StopGalamseyNow.
#StopGalamseyNow is a campaign that calls on government to undertake five steps to clamp down on the menace which is destroying the county’s land and water resources, and may see Ghana resorting to the importation of clean water in the next two decades.
* The total cessation of all small and medium scale mining for a period of six months
* The cessation of the issuance of new mining licences for a year
* The reclassification of mining categories to reflect the use of new/larger equipment
* The allowance of water bodies to regenerate their natural ecology
The campaign has so far received massive support from various groups and individuals joined in raising awareness on the problem.
As part of measures to push the agenda to address the problem , Citi FM presented a petition to Parliament in a bid to secure the legislative body’s support against the menace.
The petition, which was submitted by the station’s Director of News Programming and Host of Citi Breakfast Show, Bernard Koku Avle, was received by the leadership of Parliament.
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(Via: CitiFM Online Ghana)
