The Ghana Medical Association (GMA) has criticized the government’s community mining scheme, calling it a mere cover for illegal mining activities, commonly known as galamsey. According to the GMA’s Vice President, Professor Ernest Yorke, illegal mining has a severe destructive impact on major mining communities. Much of the damage occurs under the guise of the government’s community mining initiative.
In an interview with Nana Tuffour Boateng on Citi FM’s Eyewitness News, Prof. Yorke stressed the need for urgent action to reverse the damage being done. He also attributed the problem to the lack of proper supervision of the scheme.
“The effect of this illegal mining on the environment is more health-related and the health implications, if unchecked, are going to be dire and an existential threat to this country and that is why we have come together to let the government know that we must reverse the trend.
They [the government] introduced the community mining scheme and for us, it is a euphemism to perpetuate the illegality because it is unchecked and it is destroying the environment and so let us take a halt and regroup and have a direction to correct this damage.”
GMA and several other health unions and associations on Friday, September 6, urged President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to immediately ban all small-scale mining operations, whether legal or illegal.
The associations and unions urged that the “President of the Republic of Ghana should direct a total ban on small-scale mining operations with immediate effect, whether legal or illegal” and also “strengthen regulatory enforcement by resourcing the relevant security agencies to clamp down on all persons who flout this directive and prosecute them expeditiously.
By: Kabah Atawoge
