The two-day National Consultative Dialogue on Small-Scale Mining will begin today Wednesday, April 14 at the Accra International Conference Centre.
According to the Chairman of the Ministerial Planning Committee, Mr Benito Owusu-Bio, the overarching goal of the Dialogue is to improve the regulation, management and governance of the sector.
Also, he said the dialogue would be used to solicit views, proposals and suggestions from diverse stakeholders;in the small-scale mining industry to develop appropriate policy interventions for the sector.
This dialogue comes on the back of the President calling for an open and non-partisan approach;in tackling the issue of illegal mining during his State of the Nation Address early this year.
The two days Dialogue which commences today and ends on April 15 is being organised by the Forestry Commission;under the auspices of the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources.
The small-scale mining sector has been fraught with many challenges such as;unsustainable mining practices which made government to ban the activities of illegal small-scale mining, also known as “galamsey” in 2017.
The activities of these illegal mining have also caused harm to some natural resources in the country. The dialogue also seeks to propose ways to bring an end to this menace.
Ahafo region opposes mining activities which destroys farmlands
Meanwhile, the Ahafo Regional Chairperson of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Kwabena Owusu Sekyere says;the region is more interested in saving their arable farmlands than giving way to mining activities.
According to him, stakeholders in the region will scrutinize even legal mining activities if the end results will be the destruction of their farmlands.
“Immediately I heard of the situation in the region, I quickly informed the Regional Minister;and now we are on high alert to curb the menace.
“I told the Regional Minister that if miners have the documents to mine;and we believe their activities will destroy our farmlands, then we would take a critical look at their activities.”
Kwabena Owusu Sekyere
Addressing issues of illegal mining in the region, the politician revealed that the Regional Minister also on his authority as the Minister has taken a strong stance against mining activities that will destroy farmlands.
Mr. Owusu Sekyere further averred that the region produces a lot of food to serve the nation and if mining activities will affect the food production, then they have to be careful.
Notwithstanding the fact that the mining sector contributes to government’s revenue, it also has negative impact on the environment and to miners.
The illegal mining sector in Ghana is plagued by several environmental and health problems with several accidents occurring which in some cases has led to fatalities in the mines.
The Akufo-Addo led administration realising the serious effects of the menace banned illegal mining but later gave way to regulated, responsible and sustainable mining under the Community Mining Programme (CMP) which is currently running in the country.
