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Dr. Albert Kobbina Mensah, Soil Research Officer at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), has stated that the military’s approach to dealing with the galamsey menace has been ineffective since the 1980s when their operations were first introduced.
Dr. Mensah added that their activities had evolved over the years and had come with different names, some of which include Operation Fight Galamsey in 2006, Operation Flash Out Artisanal Small Mining (ASM) in 2013, Operation Vanguard in 2017, and Operation Halt in 2021.
All these were aimed at cracking down on the cartels involved in illegal mining at the various Galamsey sites but have not yielded the needed results.
Dr. Mensah stated this at a virtual policy dialogue organised by the YAFO Institute, an independent public policy research organisation, based in Accra.
The YAFO Institute virtual policy was organized on the theme “Tackling the Galamsey Challenge in Ghana” with the aim of ensuring sustainable mining within the proposed mining communities.
The CSIR Soil Research Officer described as ineffective the activities of military personnel deployed to man the artisanal small mining (ASM) sites in the country.
He said the military approach was just a command-and-control measure targeted at the local indigenes with no checks and balances on officers who violated the laws, adding that the government must recognize the significance of mining for the livelihood of the people.
Meanwhile, in an interview with the Tema Ghana News Agency, Mr. Nathaniel Dwamena, founder of the YAFO Institute, said the challenges with illegal mining could not be solved if stakeholders and policymakers could not move away from politicizing the menace.
Mr. Dwamena recommended a more scientific approach to dealing with the challenges than leaving it in the hands of politicians, adding that successive governments must ensure they promulgate well-structured rules and guidelines to ensure sustainable mining to reclaim the already destroyed natural resources in the country.
Source: GNA
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