Takoradi-Ghana, Jan. 26, GNA – The Wassa East District Taskforce in the Western Region has retrieved trucks used for illegal mining and set ablaze two Chan Fan machines at Bonsie and Amponsaso in the Domama Electoral Area of the district.
The raid led to the seizure of three excavator monitor boards and gears, one control board, seven batteries, pumping machines and six washing blankets.
Mr Frank Kwamena Danso, the District Information officer, in an interview with the Ghana News Agency, said the two Chan fan machines used to mine on water bodies and some unidentified items were set ablaze to prevent their future usage.
Meanwhile, no arrest had been made as the perpetrators abandoned the site before the taskforce arrived.
He said the site revealed how destructive illegal mining was to the environment adding: “activities at the sites were unimaginable, the forest and river bodies have seriously been degraded and depleted with several dugouts. These are death traps for any living being that move around the site.”
Destruction of farmlands, high dropout rates from school, and surge in social vices are some of the rippling effects of illegal mining.
Mr Emmanuel Boakye, the District Chief Executive, who corroborated the information, expressed worry over some security personnel serving as informants to those “miscreants in the illegal business.”
He admonished the people to support the government’s effort in ending illegal mining activities to save the country from the negative consequences.
“If these do not stop today, a time is coming that unexplained illness will befall mankind, scarcity of food and drinkable water”.
