The Ghana Armed Forces (GAF) has mapped out new strategies, in collaboration with the Minerals Commission and the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources, to tackle activities of illegal miners in the country.
Details of the new strategies, which have not been disclosed, are being championed by the Central Command of the GAF in the Ashanti Region, the hub of illegal mining in the country.
In line with that, the command and its partners have begun stakeholder engagements through sensitisation programmes such as seminars.
One of such seminars was held in Kumasi last weekend to educate participants on the adverse effects of the heavy metal pollutants associated with uncontrolled small-scale mining on the environment.
It also discussed the role of district assemblies, traditional rulers and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in checking the activities of small-scale miners in the communities.
The General Officer Commanding (GOC) the Central Command, Kumasi, Brigadier-General Joseph Aphour, said the command, which had been part of the fight against illegal mining over the years, was scaling up its activities.
That, he said, was because there was still more work to be done to clamp down on the activities of illegal miners to save water bodies and the environment from further destruction.
Ashantibiz
