Blue water guards initiative, a success of failure? Nana Gyetuah writes…

Nana Gyetuah writes…

As someone who has lived in a Galamsey community throughout my childhood and knows the activities of illegal miners, these water guards may just become another waste of state resources.

I still wish they succeed, though.

Chiefs, Assembly members, Unit Committee members, Members of Parliament, District Chief Executives, CEOs, Police Commanders, Military officers, Journalists, name them, have all been living in these communities and could not serve as whistle-blowers.

They watched on whilst illegal miners destroyed lands and water bodies to the extent that some galamseyers mine in communities in the full glare of these powerful people who have all it takes to stop them.

In Hiawa, a community in the Amenfi Central Constituency for Example, illegal miners are reported to have taken over lands belonging to the Ghana Prisons Service.

These are security officers, they could not serve as whistle-blowers.

They could not raise alarm that lands close to their security installations are being taken over by illegal miners and we think these young ones are capable?

If those mentioned above, with all the resources and power they possess, could not be proper whistle-blowers, what would these young recruits do?

I have witnessed illegal miners giving out huge sums of money to Police commanders, military officers, politicians, and the like to buy their way out.

A police Commander in the Western Region took 100k from illegal miners in just one day to set Chinese nationals free the same day they were arrested.

He was shaking when the physical cash was presented to him in his office.

That is even a smaller amount these guys can give to buy their way through.

These young water guards, I’m not sure have even seen 10k in their accounts before.

Imagine opening up huge monies to them like what happened to the commander.

They will definitely fall for it.

Let’s hope these young water guards do not become illegal miners in the near future because they will now be exposed to the galamsey business.

One of the approach to fighting illegal mining in the country to my opinion is for the government to acquire the mining lands, get excavators to demarcate the lands, and host the miners under proper supervision.

I heard Sammy Gyemfi discussing a similar approach with OB in their last interview, a brilliant idea.

If this approach is fully regulated by the government, we are sure to have our water bodies back.

Our lands will be covered after the mining by the government.

Either the government buys the gold or allows the small-scale miners to buy and sell to the government at an ideal price.

I, however, doubt the small-scale miners will agree to this approach because they may not be able to control gold as they used to, but with proper enforcement, the government can achieve this.

I believe the minister for Lands and Natural Resources wants to combat illegal mining at all costs, and he has introduced the water guards, I wish him well and I hope he succeeds but it will be a difficult task.

Kindly forward after reading till it gets to the appropriate authoritaties.

We need to fight this illegal mining together.

Thank you