The Tano and Bia rivers have seen massive improvement in terms of their clarity after the renewed fight on illegal mining.
The two rivers in the Western and Central parts of the country which hitherto, were polluted beyond recognition, can now be seen to assuming their natural color with residents along them praising government for the effort.
This became public when the Minister for Lands and Natural Resources, Samuel Abu Jinapor, took a team of media personnel and officials of the ministry and local assemblies, to tour the two rivers.
The tour was to ascertain the current state of the rivers and progress report of the security officers deployed there to stop the activities of illegal miners along the two rivers.
President Akufo-Addo through the Ghana Armed Forces (GAF) in April this year, deployed a team of military personnel to the areas notorious for illegal mining with the sole aim of halting their activities which were injurious to the country’s main rivers.
A statement from the Information Ministry, which made the announcement, said the team of 200 military personnel commenced the operation on Wednesday, April 28, 2021, on the River Pra in the Central and Western Regions.
According to the statement, the directive is based on the suggestions the government received during the Stakeholder Dialogue on Small Scale Mining which took place from April 14 to 15, 2021.
Mr. Jinapor after witnessing that there was major transformation in the two rivers as compared to what he saw few months ago, said “This is the clearest river I have seen since my assumption of office as a minister, and I excited about it”.
He described the clearing up of the Tano and Bia rivers as a big boost to the fight against the menace.
He, however, stressed that the clearing up of the rivers did not mean that the fight against galamsey had been won, adding that much is needed to be done in order to safeguard the successes chalked so far.
He is optimistic that although the Operation Halt team had done much to stop the activities of illegal mining, the actual operations to sanitise the system depended on the Regional Security Council (REGSEC).
