Daryl Bossu, the Deputy Executive Director of A Rocha Ghana, has slammed Ghana’s approach to combating illegal mining, popularly known as galamsey.
According to A Rocha Ghana, the state’s weak enforcement has allowed Ghana’s galamsey menace to persist.
Daryl Bossu argued that the state has failed to effectively enforce existing laws, despite enforcement being a key component of efforts to tackle illegal mining.
Speaking on Channel One TV’s The Point of View on Wednesday, September 30, Daryl Bossu stated, “We treat Galamsey with kid gloves compared to other situations that this country is also confronted with”.
“Enforcement has been very lackadaisical. Enforcement has been centralised instead of decentralised,” Mr Bossu said.
Daryl Bossu further attributed the persistence of galamsey to years of “systematic negligence, systematic error of non-enforcement and non-compliance”,
He argued that the problem has grown beyond what can be addressed through isolated interventions.
In related news, President John Dramani Mahama has rejected claims that he promised to declare a state of emergency as part of efforts to tackle illegal mining, popularly known as galamsey.
Speaking at a town hall meeting with members of the Ghanaian community in the Tri-State Area of the United States on Friday, September 25, Mahama said in opposition he had never said he would invoke a state of emergency to deal with the illegal mining menace.
According to the President, a state of emergency must only be considered as a last resort in addressing the galamsey crisis.
Mahama argued that declaring a state of emergency would not be practical at this stage because illegal mining activities are occurring across 10 regions of Ghana.
He argued that his government’s approach to tackling illegal mining takes into account the widespread nature of the problem rather than relying immediately on emergency measures.
President Mahama stated, “They said I said a state of emergency. I never ever said that. I never said I’d declare a state of emergency, but states of emergency are useful; you declare them as a last resort.
If you declare a state of emergency, you normally declare it in an isolated area, and you deal with the issue. You concentrate all your energy there and deal with the issue. And you finish it, and you lift the state of emergency. They are very temporary”.
“Now, what people don’t understand is that galamsey is in 10 regions of Ghana. You declare a state of emergency; where are you going to declare the state of emergency?”
He further argued, “ That 48-hour rule doesn’t apply when there’s a state of emergency. And so the point is, we still have that power, but we must exercise it as a last resort”.
“We have forest reserves that have had incursions into them. And so what we’ve done is we’ve concentrated on the forest reserves.
“Nine of those forest reserves were considered red zones because of the degree of incursion into the forest reserves and the fact that those in those forest reserves were armed, and the forest guards could not go into the reserve for fear of their lives. Today, in those nine forest reserves, the army has cleared all the people out of them,” he added.
@ghnow_ Eye witness account on the fire incident at North Industrial Area #GHnow #fyp ♬ original sound – GHnow
@ghnow_ A fire broke# out at a plastic industry in Kofi Krom, North Kaneshie, around 7:30 this morning, with thick smoke seen rising from the facility. The cause and extent of the damage are yet to be confirmed. #GHnow #fyp ♬ original sound – GHnow
