One of the speed boats
Government has procured some speed boats for the Nzema East Municipality and the Shama District Assembly in the Western Region.
The boats are to assist in the fight against illegal mining also called “galamsey” in the Ankobra and Pra Rivers.
Prof. Frimpong Boateng, Minister of Environment, Science and Technology disclosed this at brief ceremonies to hand over the boats to the Nzema East Municipal assembly and the Shama District assembly.
The Minister with Catherine Afeku and some traditional rulers
Prof. Boateng indicated that the speed boats would be used to patrol the rivers to arrest recalcitrant illegal miners who were still doing the illegal business on the two rivers.
He revealed that plans were also afoot to procure some passenger boats for the two coastal Districts to aid in the transportation of people and goods on the Pra and Ankobra rivers.
“But before that, the speed boats would be used to detect which areas in the rivers needed to be dredged and to remove tree stumps from the rivers”, he indicated.
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He advised Ghanaians not to make mistake by voting the National Democratic Congress (NDC) back to power since it has nothing good to offer the country.
He insisted the the pro-poor policies of the current government including the free Senior High School (SHS) and other development initiatives will not survive under NDC government.
He therefore admonished Ghanaians to renew the mandate of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) in 2020 to ensure the progress of the positive social intervention policies.
The Member of Parliament (MP) for Evalue-Ajomoro-Gwira, Catherine Afeku bemoaned the fact that communities that depended on the river Ankobra have been deprived of their source of drinking water.
She however, believed that the speed boats would go a long way to help stop the illegal activities.
The Municipality Chief Executive for Nzema East, Frank Okpeyen lauded the government’s grand plan towards ending illegal mining by establishing district mining committees in mining areas across the country.
Community Mining
In a related development, Prof. Boateng has launched the Community Mining Programme in the Nzema East Municipality.
The Community Mining Programme, he explained was aimed at formalizing mining in selected communities across the country.
BY Emmanuel Opoku, Axim
