Shama clay mining ban in the right direction

For years, the country has been grappling with ‘galamsey’ — the illegal mining of minerals, especially gold.

Indeed, we are not out of the woods yet, but the government is leaving no stone unturned to ensure that we nip in the bud the illegal practice that is degrading large tracts of forest and agricultural lands and polluting our rivers.

Meanwhile, while our attention is focused on ‘galamsey’, we are forgetting other evils that are plaguing us — the illegal winning of sand along our beaches, lime deposits and the quarrying of rocks across the country for construction purposes, without the necessary permits or legal blessing from the authorities.

Another activity that has reared its ugly head is the mining of clay deposits for the booming ceramics industry, with the Shama District in the Western Region already bearing the brunt of the nefarious activity by illegal miners.

The Daily Graphic, therefore, finds refreshing the ban placed on the mining of Ghana’s ‘next gold’ by the Shama District Assembly since January 19, this year, on the orders of a Deputy Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, Mr George Mireku Duker.
We see the ban as a positive step in the right direction for several reasons.

First, although some harm has already been done by way of the destruction of many farms and the large gorges left behind which are now breeding grounds for mosquitoes, we believe that the ban will stop further destruction that will only add to our woes from illegal gold mining.

Second, as the assembly has indicated, the ban will ensure that a proper permitting and regulating regime is put in place for individuals and companies desirous of pursuing clay mining to bring some sanity into the sector.

Third, the move will protect the emerging ceramics industry by ensuring that the clay resource, which is finite, at least lasts a very long time, so that communities which have been gifted with the resource, as well as their people, enjoy the benefits of employment, revenue and development before the deposits run out.

We must take a cue from what we are currently going through as a result of illegal gold mining and do the right thing before things get out of hand.

We commend the Lands and Natural Resources Ministry for stepping in to stop the chaos already being witnessed. Better late than never, we would say.

With this ban on clay mining, the Daily Graphic calls on the ministry to be more proactive with regard to the mining or winning of any natural resource in whatever form to protect our lands from further destruction, most of which is irreversible.

Now we have to quickly find a way to fill up the huge pits that have been left behind by the self-seeking greedy people who have mined certain areas without thinking of the environment.

We suggest that thorough investigations be conducted to find out the individuals and groups who have destroyed the large tracts of land in their bid to mine clay, so that those people will be involved in fixing the destroyed areas. They must be surcharged, if possible, and not be let off the hook.

We also urge the ministry and all other stakeholders not to delay the process of streamlining the clay mining sector, because the longer they take to organise the terrain, the more likely it is for some miscreants to enter the forests, aided by their cohorts in the communities, to illegally and wantonly mine more clay.

Again, as it is with many human institutions, we urge framers of the rules to govern the sector to, as much as possible, bring out ways that will prevent human interactions that will only be a recipe for corruption to permeate the sector and leave it in a sorrier state than what necessitated the ban.