Security team swoops on ‘galamsey’ operators in River Pra
The Wassa East District Security Committee (DISEC) last Saturday swooped on illegal gold miners who had returned to the Pra River to continue their illicit gold mining activities.
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The illegal miners, popularly referred to as “galamseyers”, returned to base after an earlier national security clampdown on them last year.
Seven huge floating “galamsey” platforms mounted in the middle and along the banks of the river were destroyed by the DISEC team.
The exercise followed a Daily Graphic publication that the activities of the illegal gold miners had resulted in siltation at the intake point of the Daboase Water Treatment Plant.
The team extended the exercise to Sekyere Didiso, a cocoa farming community, where the illegal miners had cut down some cocoa trees to indulge in their activities.
Shortage of water
A visibly shocked Wassa East District Chief Executive, Mr Anthony Emmanuel Aggrey, said residents of the Wassa East, Shama and Sekondi/Takoradi areas were currently facing an acute water shortage as a result of the siltation of the intake point of the treatment plant.
He said the intake points at Bosumase, Heiman and Daboase which supplied water for treatment to parts of the Central Region, notably the Komenda-Edina-Eguafo- Abrem District, were all choked.
For her part, the Wassa East Co-ordinating Director, Mrs Rachel Fosua Sarpong, said the exercise, although expensive, had to be sustained to rid the area of illegal gold miners.
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She stressed the need for collaboration among all the adjoining districts and other stakeholders to preserve the Pra River from further pollution.
click to watch video on destruction of galamsey operations on Pra river