Accra-Ghana, Nov. 07, GNA – The Full Gospel Church International (FGCI) has called on the Government to urgently call for a multi-stakeholder engagement to proffer solutions to end activities of illegal mining, also known as ‘galamsey’.
The Church, at the end of its 21st session of the General Council meetings at Tema, bemoaned the rate at which illegal mining continued to fast degrade Ghana’s land and water bodies and affecting the livelihood of citizens.
At the end of the meeting, the Church called for an urgent meeting involving both State and non-State actors, including the Church and Chiefs, to reason together and come out with long-tern solutions to end the menace.
“We extend a clarion call to government to take immediate steps to engage stakeholders in charting a new path of progress in the fight against Galamsey,” the Church said.
“From the Executive to Legislature, the Judiciary, the Security agencies and the Pulpit to the ordinary Ghanaian, we have sold our birth right in the galamsey debacle, and we must be ready to undo the negative long-term effects going forward,” FGCI said.
The FGCI encouraged churches across the country to use their pulpits “to sound alarm of the justice of God against all those who continue to defile the land of Ghana, making it an abomination”.
It also cautioned those engaged in the galamsey menace to halt their operations and recommended that they joined the Small-Scale Miners Association for their activities to be regulated to ensure the safeguard of lands, water bodies and livelihoods.
The Church said it was important for the Executive, Legislature, traditional and chieftaincy leadership to “repent from their transgressions of putting personal interest at the expense of the nation and her citizens”.
The Water Resources Commission of Ghana says the acceptable turbidity value for drinking water is five Nephelometric Turbidity Unit (NTU), while values of 80-150 NTU are acceptable for other water uses as appropriate.
However, the Commission’s sampled NTU levels for rivers in illegal mining areas as of February 2021, showed that River Ankobrah had an NTU of 24,250 NTU, Pra, 7,500 NTU, Birim, 14,800 NTU, and River Tano, 850 NTU.
Meanwhile, the Government is optimistic that with commitment of all Ghanaians, by March 2023 Ghana’s water bodies could regain their lost purity.
“It is the responsibility of everyone to fight illegal mining. Government alone cannot fight illegal mining, we need your collaboration,” Mr George Mireku Duker, the Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources, said.
He said this during a community sensitisation programme on illegal mining at Tarkwa in the Western Region last month, noting that the training of river wardens, together with Operation Halt II would help combat galamsey.
