Minerals Commission directed to produce plan to address galamsey
Parliament has directed the Minerals Commission to draw up and furnish it with a comprehensive and sustainable plan or road map on how the galamsey issue should be addressed.
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It also called on the commission to aggressively prosecute large concession mining companies that had, on their own, leased part of their mining concessions to small-scale mining operators for illegal mining.
The directives were contained in a report of the Parliamentary Select Committee on Environment, Science and Technology on the environmental challenges in Ghana.
The report, released to the House yesterday and signed by the Chairman of the committee,Mr Simon Edem- Asimah, was unanimously adopted by the plenary session.
Background
On the commemoration of World Environment Day in June 2013, the Deputy Minister of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation, Dr Bernice Heloo, made a statement on the floor of Parliament where she drew attention to the various ways of eradicating hunger and preserving the environment.
In view of the passion expressed by MPs and the deep concerns they raised about the degradation of the environment and its effect on food security, the Speaker, Mr Edward Doe Adjaho, directed the committee to ascertain the level of environmental degradation in the country and report to the House in accordance with Standing orders 156 and 185 of Parliament.
The report
The report called for the findings of the presidential task force established to check illegal mining to be made available to Parliament to enable members make inputs and adequate resources available to the task force to render it capable of arresting and prosecuting illegal miners, especially foreigners who contraven Section 83 of the Minerals and Mining Act.
Pursuant to Sections 15 and 24 of the Water Resources Commission (WRC) Act, 1996 (Act 522), the report called on the WRC to, as a matter of urgency, cause the immediate prosecution of individuals polluting water bodies.
"The committee also urges the government to intensify efforts at creating jobs for the youth in the various mining communities to prevent them from engaging in galamsey activities’’.
The report says, the threat to the socio-economic development of the country as a result of the widespread illegal mining operations could not be quantified.
It said people were trapped to death in the pits created by the operators; arable lands were being destroyed; water bodies were being polluted and poisoned, posing survival threats to aquatic organisms and human beings.
It noted that the issue of waste management in the country, on another hand, was getting more complicated and difficult to deal with.
"There is inminent danger that it could ruin our developmental gains completely. It is, therefore, imperative to give environmental management the needed priority attention in our development plans," it said.
Contributions
The Member for Odododiodoo, Nii Lante Vanderpuye, contributing to the motion to adopt the report, accused politicians of culpability in the destruction of the environment through galamsey.
He said he knew of the involvement of some political leaders in galamsey in the Atwima Mponua area in the Ashanti Region.
He,however, fell short of mentioning names.
The Member for Amenfi Central, Mr George Arthur, said most of the country's streams and rivers had been diverted as a result of galamsey and many ramsarsites destroyed.
He said those engaged in galamsey had formed strong pressure groups in the areas where they operated and harassed or threatened any individual or entity which stood in their way.
Demonstration
Minority Members of Parliament abandoned parliamentary business to participate in the demonstration organised by the New Patriotic Party to draw attention to the government's failure to address the electrical power shortages that had hit the country.
All Minority Members were absent except Mr Kwaku Agyeman-Manu ( NPP, Dormaa Central) and Kwabena Appiah-Pinkrah (NPP, Akrofuom), who held the fort in the absence of their colleagues during public business.
In spite of the very limited number of Minority members in the House,business went on as usual.
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Reports were laid, debated and adopted, statements were made and bills taken through various stages.
But for the empty chairs,one would not have realised that the Minority members were absent.