Wednesday, 19th February, 2025
Hon Emmanuel Armah-Kofi Buah
Ellembele
Thank you, Mr Speaker, for the opportunity to give a Statement on the State of Ghana’s Forest Reserve and Water Bodies.
Mr Speaker, thank you for the opportunity to address this august House on the pressing issues facing our nation, particularly the devastating scourge of illegal mining, commonly known as galamsey and its catastrophic effect on our previous forests and water bodies. I stand before you not only to provide an update on the dire situation but also to outline the solutions we have identified and the expedited actions we are taking to address this national emergency. Mr Speaker, I am also here to solicit the unwavering support of this House and Hon Colleagues to join me in this fight. This is not a battle for one individual but a collective struggle that demands unified effort to achieve meaningful and lasting solution.
Mr Speaker, Ghana boasts of a total land area of approximately, 23.8 million hectares. Of this, about 3.6 million hectares, which is 15 per cent of our total land area are designated as either forest reserve or wild life protection areas managed by the Forestry Commission. This includes 288 forest reserves and 21 protected areas scattered across the country. As we know, our forest and wildlife resources have long been major contributors to Ghana’s economic development. They provide formal and informal employment, sustainable livelihood, offer rich bio-diversity for eco-tourism and generate foreign exchange through timber export. Beyond their economic value, our forest plays a critical role in climate regulation, serving as nature’s base solution to mitigate the impact of climate change.
Mr Speaker, despite the numerous benefits we derive from the forest and our increasing knowledge about the importance of forest to our eco-system and well-being, Ghana’s forest continues to be under serious threat of deforestation and forest degradation due to factors known to all of us. Ghana is currently faced with an unprecedented threat to our forest resources and water bodies due, largely, to illegal small scale mining activities. This situation has assumed crisis proportions with dare national security and public health consequences that require immediate attention.
Mr Speaker, it would interest you to note that, out of the 288 forest reserves that I have mentioned, a whopping 44 of these forest reserves are under serious attack by illegal miners. An estimated area of over 5,000 hectares have been devastated, and to put it pictorially, about 7,500 standard football fields is what I am talking about. This is mostly occurring in these specific areas in the Ashanti Region: Bekwai, and Nkawie; in the Western Region, Tarkwa, Daboase; and in the Western North, Bibiani, Enchi and Juaboso.
Mr Speaker, the approach adopted by the illegal miners is quite alarming and frightening. They are heavily armed with sophisticated weapons and very violent with large numbers of excavators, making it extremely difficult for forest guards and rapid response team to control them since they have no such sophisticated weapons to control them. Over 9 out of the 44 forest reserves— And Mr Speaker, this is very important; over 9 out of the 44 forest reserves have been completely taken over by these illegal mining thugs with impunity and the Forestry Commission no longer has access to these forest reserves. This situation is dire and must be condemned by all citizens of Ghana.
Mr Speaker, the impact of illegal mining on our water bodies, which is the second phase, is critical and equally alarming among the three water basin systems in Ghana, which are the Volta, South-Western, and the Coastal Water Basin systems. The South-Western Basin System is most impacted. The rivers that form the South-Western Basins are the Ankobra and Pra, which are made up of Offin, Birim and Oda; and the Tano and Bia. According to the Ghana Water Company, the normal turbidity levels for water for treatment should not exceed 500 Nephelometric Turbidity Unit (NTU). However, the current turbidity levels of these water systems are between 5,000 and 12,000 NTU. The Ghana Water Company had to shut down some treatment plants in Tarkwa at a point due to over pollution from galamsey.
Mr Speaker, the pollution does not end with turbidity. These water bodies are also contaminated with toxic chemicals such as cyanide, mercury, hydrocarbons and used recklessly by these illegal miners. This is utterly unacceptable. We cannot afford to reach a point where access to clean potable water becomes a daily struggle for the citizens.
Mr Speaker, this is the grim reality of the state of our forest reserves and our water bodies. This is, indeed, what we have inherited. It is a legacy of environmental degradation that we must confront head on as part of H. E. President John Dramani Mahama’s Reset Ghana Agenda—[Hear! Hear!]— The outlook is undoubtedly bleak, but we are resolute in our commitment to reversing these crises with your support. In line with this Reset Agenda, I wish to provide highlight of some short-, medium-, and long-term measures that we have embarked upon to address this situation. In the short term, we want to clear all water bodies from illegal mining activities through the use of river guards on our Blue Water Initiative. Details of this initiative will be provided during the launch of this initiative in the coming weeks.
Two, engagement of stakeholders at all levels—Among other things, the intention is to strengthen our regulatory and law enforcement regime and get the buy-in of stakeholders on measures being pursued. The stakeholders must include our traditional authorities, municipal and district authorities, civil society groups, our Members of Parliament, security agencies, state regulators, the Judiciary, and here we will talk about the numbers. In the last few years, the numbers for prosecution for illegal mining is not very encouraging. Out of over 800, the number we had for people who have been persecuted was less than 40. So, we need to look at that area as well. This is the reason I am here today.
Mr Speaker, I wish to seek your commitment and the commitment of the leadership at all levels, including all political parties including my friends on this Side and my friends in the Majority as well. We have to collectively fight this. Another shortterm measure is that I inaugurated a working group of experts on Wednesday, 12th February, 2025, to undertake a review of the mining sector and licensing regime and recommend immediate radical reform to sanitise illegal mining activities within our forest reserves and water bodies. Our committee is expected to submit its report by the end of the month.
Mr Speaker, we are also collaborating with the Ministry of Environment, Science and Technology and actively discussing modalities for revoking Environmental Protection (Mining in Forest Reserves) Regulations, L. I. 2462 to establish a responsive legal framework for small scale mining in ecologically sensitive areas. Our short- to medium-term approach is to roll out the Government’s Tree for Life Reforestation Initiative. This ambitious initiative aims to restore degraded landscapes by transforming areas ravaged by illegal mining and other drivers of deforestation into ecologically functional landscapes. We intend to promote sustainable forest management, conservation and reforestation to combat diversity loss, water pollution, climate change and environmental degradation, threats that, now, pose an existential threat to our very existence. We recognise that many young people tend to engage illegal mining activities due to lack of sustainable employment opportunities.
As part of our long-term strategy, we are also exploring a lot of other alternative sustainable livelihoods to reduce dependence on galamsey and other illegal mining activities. Mr Speaker, I conclude with a heartfelt appeal to all of our Colleague Members of Parliament and Ghanaians to join in this fight against galamsey. Let us unite to support the measure outlined today. We owe it to ourselves, our children and future generations to safeguard our environment and secure a sustainable future for our beloved nation. The time to act is now. Together, we can and must prevail. I thank you.
Hon Yusif Sulemana
Bole Bamboi
Mr Speaker, I am grateful for this opportunity. Mr Speaker, let me thank the Hon Minister for Lands and Natural Resources for the brilliant Statement that he has just made this afternoon. I am not thanking him just for the Statement, but, also, for the speed at which he has started his work. In less than a month, one would agree with me that he is moving at such a speed, and if we would support him, the challenges that we are being confronted with in this sector will be a thing of the past. He has demonstrated preparedness and competence to resolve the issues confronting that sector.
Mr Speaker, these problems that we are all faced with are problems that have been there for a very long time, but we must get them resolved at a point. To get them resolved, we will need all hands to be on deck, and that is exactly what he is doing. He is calling for stakeholder engagements; he is calling on other political parties to come on board; he is calling on MMDCEs to come on board, and he is calling on all Ghanaians to come on board; that is the way to go. I doff my hat for my Hon Minister for this laudable approach he is using in solving such problems.
Mr Speaker, as for the challenges, they are clear. The data exists to show that our forest cover is being depleted. Like he said in his Statement, as we speak, 44 of our reserves are gone to, if we like, illegal mining. Again, if we read the reports everywhere, the Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL) is suffering because of the way our water bodies have been destroyed. We cannot wait, even for a moment. We need to act and act speedily, and that is what my Minister is doing. Today, I am a very happy person because if we have such an action-oriented person at this strategic place, then we are assured that we are getting solutions.
In conclusion, the Hon Minister spoke about the use of water guards to ensure that our water bodies are protected. Mr Speaker, he discussed something with me, and I think it is important to mention it here. He said that he is going to use the 24- HourEconomy to ensure that these water guards are going to run the concept of one-three-three; one job, three shifts, three people. Mr Speaker, thank you for this opportunity.
Hon Kwabena Okyere Darko-Mensah
Takoradi
Mr Speaker, thank you for this opportunity and I also thank the Hon Minister for coming to this House to solicit the support of Parliament for this fight.
Mr Speaker, this fight is not an easy fight. He knows it. In his own Constituency, he knows that it is a very big fight. And when one starts fighting them — I still remember when President Mahama was in power and the Frimpong-Boateng Report came, they said the President, who was the custodian of all the gold in this country, had a galamsey site. They also started touting that the President, Nana Akufo-Addo, is involved in galamsey.
The Minister for Lands and Natural Resources and then, my good self — Mr Speaker, the reason I am saying this fight — Mr Speaker — To support the fight against galamsey. Mr Speaker, I still remember I was in the Region when the Chairman for the Journalists against Galamsey sent a message to the Hon Minister for Lands and Natural Resources and it was passed on to me to go and fight at a galamsey site on the river in Mpohor. After I finished the fight, within three days, the man was recorded on tape saying that I had collapsed in a hospital and my 17 million had been taken away by my driver. —
The fact of the matter is that the Hon Minister should be guided. That this big fight is restarting. It is a big fight. And it is going to come with a lot of challenges. And therefore, we all need to support him. Mr Speaker, we all buy the water we drink from outside so,if the water is destroyed, it affects all of us. That is why we need to be strong to support him to fight it.
Mr Speaker, the Minister has also made mention of setting up a committee that he expects to report back to him by the end of this month. I think it is a good idea. But I want to promise him, any licensing regime that starts and stops in Accra would not solve this problem. Because most of the times, the districts do not own the process and therefore, do not know where all the mining sites are. But we know that in the law, we have the district mining committees where the chief is a member, the district police commander is a member, the district chief executive is a member, the Minerals Commission is a member and then the association of small-scale miners or miners in the district are also supposed to be members. I believe that henceforth, when they get the recommendation, they should insist that it should be the committee or the body issuing these licenses and then Accra can then top it up. Because if we do not do that, there is not going to be any community ownership. And even the fight itself also has to be owned by the community and the district. Otherwise, we are going to have a big challenge in fighting it when we continue our method of fighting everything from Accra. In fact, by the time soldiers even move into the district, the galamsayers would have been informed and they would run away.
In fact, when we were fighting it in those days, they would not be there when we went in the morning or afternoon. When we returned the next morning, we would realise that they had come to do operations in the night. And this is very difficult for our agencies to be able to stop them.
He also made mention of the river guards. I believe that it is a good thing. In fact, we trained a lot of river guards. We only deployed them for a few periods because of morality issues. Because along the lines, what we realised was that those fighting galamsey, from the police to the army to immigration —it became a different story altogether. I believe that now that we have digitalisation—
Mr Speaker, I am concluding. Now that we have digitalisation, it would be important if we could implement and invest in solar closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras along the rivers so that we could use that to check the river guards and also to check the galamseyers. Mr Speaker, with these few words, I believe that it is time we support him to succeed – and now it has come back to him to get it resolved.
Hon Worlase Kpeli
Kwahu Afram Plains
Mr Speaker, thank you.
The hour is now, and the time is now. It has been decades since Ghana has been making efforts to eradicate illegal miners from our water bodies and our forests. But what is the action? Our actions always stay in the armchair. We say it like poets, but when it comes to the action, we are divided on how to curb this menace. We even started commenting on this beautiful Statement by going politically. How then would a divided house be able to train its children?
Mr Speaker, my little advice to us all, including myself, is that until we become one and frown upon the activity itself, we cannot curb it. This is because it is us who are admitting the very people there. The youth we see there are the people who are unemployed. They would find every means, and they cannot be restricted them from going there. If we start making conscious efforts to pull out the youth from those sites by giving them something to do—I can give the House a typical example. The youth we see in the trenches, muddying the waters, most of them might have come from Afram Plains North.
This is because they have the experience with the waters, and because they have nothing to do in their constituencies, and nothing is going on well with them, they end up trying to look for quick moneys. The machines that dig the holes do not muddy the waters like the young ones who go inside to turn it over again. I urge us all, the Ministries—Youth Development and Empowerment; Sports and Recreation; Food and Agriculture; Lands and Natural Resources; and Environment, Science and Technology to come together and withdraw the youth from the sites. Then we can know the masters who put the youth there.
That is only when we can stop galamsey from our side. Thank you, Mr Speaker.
Hon Patrick Yaw Boamah
Okaikwei Central
Mr Speaker, thank you very much, and I would like to add my voice to the comments on the floor on the Statement ably made by the Minister for Lands and Natural Resources.
Mr Speaker, I believe galamsey issues or issues with regard to mining in our forest reserves, in our water bodies and what have you, have become a serious national security issue. It requires serious political will on the part of the Executive, the Legislature and the Judiciary to stem this canker.
Mr Speaker, people in our communities are seriously trading off cocoa farms for the galamsey menace to continue there. Why would they do that? It is because of our quest for money. In this country, we hail people who hold money without even asking the source of the money. We have all benefited from cocoa money; it has taken us through scholarships, education and what have you. But now, one goes to his or her village and the chief, elders and family heads are ready to cede off the farms that took care of them to illegal miners.
Mr Speaker, if we read paragraph 4.3, page 110 of the 200 page manifesto of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), it has about 18 policy interventions on the extractive sector. It is in their manifesto, and I am asking myself how long it would take Mr Emmanuel Armah-Kofi Buah and his team to implement those schemes or measures?
Mr Speaker, it is not going to be easy. It requires a serious hand with a tough skin to go after these illegal activities. The Hon Minister would be tempted, and his Colleagues on both Sides would be involved. They would come to him to plead with him. He would be tempted with nolle prosequi having gone after people.
We talked about only 40 people being prosecuted. Yes, the courts are there to protect the liberty of the individual. Majority Leader will tell us; it takes a long time to convict an individual. It is part of our criminal jurisprudence, so if he has come here to read this beautiful Statement, we would be watching the space for the implementation. This is because Hon Member is talking about decentralising illegal mining, setting up small, medium, and large scale—I have read it. But our own Members from both Sides would go to Hon Minister to ask for favours. He has to take a very strong step on suspending the issuance of licensing, make sure that the proper demarcations are made, and make sure he visits almost all the sites.
Mr Speaker, we are talking about over 3,000 illegal mining sites. How would it be patrolled? We do not have the technology. We would be listening to the Minister of Finance on the 10th March,2025 on budget of the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources. We would be looking at the budget lines to support the Ministry in this fight. We do not want the Hon Minister to come here for his Ministry’s budget approval and say that the Ministry requested for half a billion, and it has been giving 100 million. We would be listening to him.
Mr Speaker, we pray for him. I know him; he has the heart, but he should get the resources and the tough skin to fight this. The Hon Minister went to Asantehene, Otumfuo, and he gave him good advice. All the chiefs— He went to the Western Region with the President. We monitored him, and we know some of his constituents are involved. How is he going to fight it? He would be thinking about his seat, and he would be thinking about how the NDC wins the next elections, God forbid
Mr Speaker, I believe the House and the country are solidly behind the Hon Minister because he mentioned about turbidity levels; from 500, it is now over 12,000. The Water Resources Commission would give him all the data. If we drive from Cape Coast on the Pra River to Ankobra River, crossing to the constituency of Mr First Deputy Speaker, we all see the water levels. The Minister should get the right people to work with. Otherwise, he would come here and weep one day and say little did he know that Hon Sulemana and his commentary did not help him. Thank you, Mr Speaker
Hon Mohammed Adams Sukparu
Sissala West
Thank you very much, Mr Speaker.
Mr Speaker, I was only trying to catch your eye, so if I had not made the noise, I believe you would not have given me the opportunity. So, let me thank you for recognising me this time around. Let me also thank the Hon Minister for this great initiative; this is what we call the resetting agenda—Because this is the first time, we have a Minister come to this House to let us know that all of us here are stakeholders, and it is time for us to come together to dialogue to find a lasting solution to the challenges that we are confronted with. As far as our forest reserves and the mining sector are concerned.
Mr Speaker, the challenge that we are faced with as a country has nothing to do with anybody outside the political class, and I repeat it: I am also part of the people. We all sit here, and most of the time we pretend and blame an ordinary youth who is walking in Sissala West. The youth living in Sissala West does not know where a forest reserve in the Western Region is and that particular youth, Mr Speaker, does not know which of our lands contain either gold or diamond. It is we, the leaders in this country, who recruit these unemployed youth and task them—We give them all the necessary equipment to go and destroy the forest reserves in our country.
Mr Speaker, we were all in this country when the media reported that the driver of a certain Regional Minister took a huge sum of money— Mr Speaker I did not say it I said the media reported. I am not the one saying it.
Thank you very much, Mr Speaker. We were all in this country when the media reported that the driver of a certain Regional Minister, who is now former Regional Minister, took huge sums of money, which runs into millions of cedis, and absconded. We were told that those moneys were proceeds of illegal mining or galamsey.
Mr Speaker, but when we give opportunities to ourselves to come up with solutions, we dance around the issues and rather try to blame innocent youth who are looking for employment. Mr Speaker, I would want to thank the Minister for bringing up this issue.
I would want to thank the Hon Minister for bringing up the issue and, this time around, engaging all stakeholders, including the Members of Parliament, our chiefs, the District Chief Executives (DCE), so that we all come together and see this as a national issue and address it as such.
In conclusion, Mr Speaker, I want to conclude. 3.36p.m. In conclusion, I want to call on you and our political class, including the New Patriotic Party’s 88 Members of Parliament. They should join us. They are now 87. This time around, Mr Speaker, we have a very humble Minister who is in charge of the sector, who is ready to listen to everybody. His doors are open, Mr Speaker
He is ready to listen to the solution that we will propose to him. So together, we can all address this matter. Thank you very much once again, Mr Speaker, for the opportunity.
Hon Matthew Nyindam
Kpandai
Thank you, Mr Speaker for the opportunity to also contribute to the Statement made by the Minister. Mr Speaker, we all agree that galamsey is an enemy to all of us. It is an enemy to this country and for that matter, if we are condemning it, we must all come together as a nation to condemn it.
Mr Speaker, people have lost their lives to galamsey. Cocoa farms have gone because of galamsey. Mr Speaker, water bodies that people used to survive on as their drinking water, today, if one goes to most of these galamsey areas, all the beautiful rivers are gone. For that matter, galamsey is an enemy to all of us. So, in fighting galamsey, we need to collectively do it.
Mr Speaker, the Ghana Water Company has always complained that if we do not take time, if we do not manage galamsey seriously, we would end up importing water into this country. It tells us how dangerous and inhuman this particular act is. So, if we are fighting it, politics should be taken away.
Mr Speaker, under the NDC and under the NPP, people have gone into the forests to destroy them because of the huge appetite they have for money. For that matter, if we decide to do politics with it, that under one regime, this has happened, under another regime, this has happened, Mr Speaker, we can all point to facts that nobody can dodge; that under the NDC, people practiced galamsey, people died and it is same under the NPP too.
I expected that the Minister would have made his Statement without giving any room for any of us to punch any hole. I know he came under Order 91 of the Standing Orders to give a Statement as a Minister, but if he says that that is what he inherited, Mr Speaker, I know very well and there are media reports out there that after the December 7 elections, people have gone to take over galamsey sites. Mr Speaker, among us here, they have even banned somebody from coming to his constituency because he is involved in galamsey. I want to find out from the Minister whether that is also part of his inheritance because if he says that is what he has inherited, it means that that is the past but we are talking about current matters. Mr Speaker, current matters—
Mr Speaker, I will go on. I have never mentioned any Hon Member’s name. I have never said here that there is a report from any journalist. I have never said that. Mr Speaker, I said that one of us has been banned by the chiefs from going to his constituency. That is what I said and I have never mentioned anybody’s name so, if my Colleague here is trying to tell us the one involved, that is his problem. Mr Speaker, what I said was that the maker of the Statement, which is the Minister, said that is what he has inherited. And at the back of that Statement, I was just telling him that after the December elections, these complaints have come and for that matter, in fighting galamsey, it is up to all of us as a nation to do away with politics. I want to urge the Minister because it would be a dangerous fight for him if he journeys on the partisan line. It is not going to help any of us because I have never seen raw gold before. I am not from that area.
I do not even intend to go into this venture, because it kills all of us. So, I want to urge the Minister to see each and every one of us here as team players, so that in dealing with this canker, we can get good water, get back our cocoa, and get back our lands, so that tomorrow we can all celebrate as a nation. Thank you, Mr Speaker, for your opportunity.
Hon Suhuyini Sayibu Alhassan
Tamale North
Thank you very much, Mr Speaker, for the opportunity to contribute to the Statement ably made by the Hon Minister for Lands and Natural Resources on the “State of Ghana's Forest Reserves and Water Bodies”.
Mr Speaker, indeed this is a very important Statement and it could not have come at a better time. We live in a country where in 2019, we were told that about 60 per cent of our forest cover was going down due to illegal mining. Mr Speaker, at one point in time, Global Forest Watch (GFW) put our rate of deforestation at 1.13 per cent a year. We are also in a country where we are told by managers of our water resources that if care is not taken, very soon we are going to have to import water for potable use. That is dangerous and risky, and that should be worrying to every patriotic Ghanaian.
Mr Speaker, that is why I am excited about the Minister's call on all of us to come together, to see ourselves as partners in this fight and to share ideas where necessary, to support the Ministry and by extension, Government in waging a war that would ensure that we preserve our own lives and preserve the future of this country. I am excited again, that the Minister is talking about the need to introduce what he termed “Tree for Life Restoration Initiative”.
Mr Speaker, we have many of our lands devastated by this illegal mining and these miners, when they are done with their destruction, just move to the next location. It is important that as we deal with the menace, and also reclaim some of these lands that have been destroyed already. So, I am excited about this initiative and I think that in line with the Government’s agenda, especially if we take lessons from what we used to do termed as “Green Ghana”, where the impact has been less than impressive, we would be able to reclaim these lands that have been destroyed by illegal miners.
Mr Speaker, it is also important that we improve enforcement and that again is the reason I am excited about the Minister's assurance that we would see a retooling and the introduction of many of these regulatory bodies at our district level. We also need public awareness and the Minister's Statement is one of the ways of ensuring that we create awareness for this fight. The stakeholder engagement has to be tight and again, the Minister has highlighted it. We in this Chamber must see ourselves as partners in this fight and contribute however and whatever we can to ensure that we succeed against these nation wreckers who are putting all of us at risk.
Mr Speaker, thank you for the opportunity.
Hon Jerry Ahmed Shaib
Weija-Gbawe
Mr Speaker, I thank you very much for this opportunity.
Mr Speaker, I want to once again thank the Hon Minister for making this very important Statement. I want to take a cue from Hon Patrick Boamah on looking at the very important arms of government and how we can collaborate to ensure that galamsey becomes a thing of the past. It starts with the Executive and the kind of powers the President has, the kind of powers the Ministers have, the Municipal Metropolitan District Chief Executives (MMDCEs) and even chief executives within Ghana and what they can do within this period.
Mr Speaker, this is not to say that the Legislature, the lawmakers, do not have the capacity to deal with the issue of galamsey. We have a few laws with reference to how people should be punished when they go wrong or are found foul of the law. Then we link it to the Judiciary and how prosecution should be dealt with or how fast we should deal with issues of prosecution.
Mr Speaker, within this Chamber, the issue of galamsey is so politicised and I am so worried as to how we can take a leap. One could see the passion on the face of the Minister when he was delivering his Statement, but do we even see that beyond Members? As we are even here, people are finding reasons to say that one was once found doing serious galamsey and all manner of blame. If one sees himself as being labelled a galamseyer, is the person even going to come on board to support, either to reduce or eliminate galamsey?
Mr Speaker, it is devastating and our water bodies are getting contaminated by day. We are facing or being confronted with serious health issues; people are dying. We are giving birth to stillborn children. Our forests are all getting eliminated. In my Constituency, Weija Gbawe, the water is getting damaged and contaminated just because of galamsey. If we do not take certain serious steps and move away from politics, we will not be able to buy water to drink. If we do not move away from politics, whether one is in the Executive or Legislature or Judiciary, and do not see the need to stand by the Minister and stand by each other to help take care of this menace, tomorrow we would wake up and not have a reason to come to this Chamber. Galamsey is killing people.
Let us stop being political. Well, if Members want to go into that domain, then they should understand that people started giving caution. Even as I speak, people are still being political about it. If we want to get into this, the Hon Minister is not going to have a solution. Ghana is not going to have a solution. Let us depoliticise our brains for once. Let us understand that we are Ghanaians first. Galamsey is killing people, and they do not want to see it—
Mr Speaker, there is the need for us to consider the correctional methods. There is the need to empower—It has actually become a national security issue. People are arrested and there is an intervention. From where ever the intervention comes from, we should learn to understand that we need correctional measures. We, first of all, need to empower the Ministry. Like the former Regional Minister said, they go in the morning and afternoons to chase people, but they go back at dawn and the whole place has been excavated. Some excavators were burnt; did it give us the solution? Are we looking at the real ways to find a solution? Fortunately, the political will is here.
Political will does not mean it has to come from President Mahama. Political will has to come from all of us, and it does not matter which party one belongs to.
Political will must be you and I. Let us show leadership. I am not going to stand here and say that because President Mahama said that he would give amnesty to those who were once incarcerated by Akufo-Addo, so that is the way to go. No.
The way to go is that whether it is President Kufuor or President Mahama or President Atta Mills, whoever it is, let us come together to fight the menace. It deals with cash. A lot of youth unemployment can be resolved when we have taken care of galamsey. A lot of health issues can be resolved when we have taken care of galamsey. If one does not want to take care of galamsey, it is up to them. Maybe, they have not faced it yet; it is coming closer to them. Mr Speaker, I thank you for allowing me to make this contribution.
Hon Ayariga Mahama
Bawku Central
Mr Speaker, we must all thank the Minister for Lands and Natural Resources for coming to the House to make this Statement. I believe it is barely two weeks since he took his seat at that Ministry. I am amazed that he is already thinking very seriously about the galamsey menace, and has already put together a set of ideas regarding how that can be done.
Mr Speaker, I want to use this platform to announce that the Minister approached me and has already scheduled a conference for Members of Parliament to meet and discuss galamsey or small-scale illegal mining in our various constituencies, so that together, we can fashion out a solution to the problem. This is because it is a problem that confronts all of us, and it is a problem that all of us must be involved in solving.
Unless we work together, we would not be able to resolve this problem. This Minister appreciates that and has organised this conference; so, I urge all Sides of the House to attend the conference. What the Minister wants to do at the conference is to get us all to honestly declare the activities in our various constituencies and individually, as parliamentarians, provide strategies and proposals on how the problem can be dealt with in our constituencies, so that he can consolidate that into a national strategy. This is because all of us represent constituencies and the constituencies put together, cover the whole of Ghana.
So, we believe that the problem will be effectively solved if every Member in this Chamber comes with a proposal on how to deal with it in our individual constituencies, he then consolidates that, and that becomes the framework guiding his actions and inactions. This is because it is the Members of Parliament and the District Chief Executives (DCEs) working together who can solve this problem.
Mr Speaker, when I was the Minister for Environment, I made it a point to visit galamsey sites. I visited sites where I saw huge excavators excavating. I saw hundreds of young girls carrying the material in pans on their heads. Most of them spoke languages that I understood; they were mostly from the north. There were girls who were between 15 to 17 years, and they carried the pans the whole day, and the excavators were there. I had conversations with them. Some of them were in secondary schools and had come there during the vacation to work and earn something, and go back to their communities, among others.
Our people say that when one tumbles and falls, they should not look at where they fell; they should look at where they hit the stone. That is where the problem is. To solve this problem, we must look at creating alternative livelihoods in the less developed regions of our country. We must invest in irrigation in the north. We must invest in large scale commercial farms in the north, so that when they have alternative livelihoods, they will not be tempted to go and carry pans from morning till evening.
The solution to the problem does not lie only at the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources. The solution to the problem lies with all the other Ministries: Ministry of Health, Ministry of Education, Ministry of Food and Agriculture, and Ministry of Trade, Agribusiness and Industry. These Ministries need to upgrade their games and create alternative livelihoods that will attract these young people, instead of they wanting to engage in the risky business of galamsey.
Mr Speaker, I went to some sites, as Minister for Environment, and one would see them dig holes in forest reserves. They used to attract and deceive small boys that they had enhanced their spiritual powers and encouraged those children to go deep down the holes to dig and come out with material for them to process. These children were basically primary school children, who had abandoned their families and their schooling and were now engaged in this very risky business. They then created shanty communities around them where they used plastic bags, and created homes for themselves. It was deplorable to see things like that. So, it is a real problem.
Mr Speaker, I see the problem as a crisis of law and order. Why do I say this? The Minerals and Mining Act, 2006 (Act 703) has very beautiful provisions that if we just followed and implemented it, it will deal significantly with the problem. What are the provisions? One, when people realise that there is gold somewhere, they will go and dig, no matter what we do. It is not just in Ghana; anywhere in the world. When people hear that there is gold anywhere, whether it is in America or Australia or Europe or South Africa—If we hear that there is gold beneath this Chamber, by the time we come back tomorrow morning, we will see some people who will find ways and means of digging underneath this Chamber to extract the gold. That is gold for you, and that is how gold has attracted people over the period in history. So, we cannot stop gold mining. What we should do is to legalise gold mining.
The Minerals and Mining Act, 2006 (Act 703) says that when the Minister identifies an area that could become a small-scale gold mining site, —He should so designate it as a smallscale gold mining site. When he designates it as such, it gives the regulatory authorities the powers to now intervene. As the Minister for Environment, Science and Technology, when I went to the illegal gold mining sites, I noticed, I did not see my Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) officers. When I asked them why they were not there helping them to do it properly? They said, because it is an illegal activity, they at EPA could not come and supervise but when the Minister designates it as a small-scale mining area, then the EPA would now be able to move in and also provide them with technical support as to how to do it properly.
At the same time, the EPA would monitor the purchase of mercury and the use of mercury at that location. EPA would monitor the purchase and use of explosives and then all the other processing activities.
Mr Speaker, I spoke to a number of illegal miners, and they said, that if they can rent an excavator and bring it this far and keep it here to excavate, what makes you think that they cannot use the services of the EPA? What makes you think that they cannot use the services of a proper mining engineer? I asked them why they are not using them. He said, they were not using them because what they were doing there was illegal and at any time, the soldiers could move in and take whatever equipment he has brought there. So, he has to dig as fast as possible, scoop as much as he can, process it as quickly as possible and get out of the place. So, this is what is driving them. It is not that they cannot make the investments to legalise it. Some of them even told me that they make payments to their assemblies.
My concern about reclamation— They expect that when the assemblies take their money to come and do reclamation after they have left. In some cases, some even showed me receipts of some payments that they made to assemblies, I am talking about eight years ago.
This is a problem that I think if we sit as Members of Parliament (MP) and we marshal the relevant political will—We have both the legal framework for resolving the problem and the political commitment to dealing with it.
As for those who mine in forest reserves and along water bodies, these are no-go areas. We cannot allow that to happen and the Minister has spoken about the levels of pollution of our water bodies. So, if our water bodies are polluted to this extent, we as a country must appreciate that mining in water bodies is totally unacceptable, and we must stop it. We have the capacity to stop it. Because every river passes through a political district, and that political district has a district security committee. There is a district police station there with police officers. Some of them fall within a region with the regional police security committees and others even fall in regions that even have military bases.
I think so far across the country, in almost every region, there is some military base or the other. So, I do not understand how the Ghana Armed Forces, the military, would convince me that they do not have the capacity to police our water bodies. The point is that there is an allegation and a claim that even those who are supposed to enforce the law to monitor it are also involved. That is where political commitment and the commitment of all of us come into play.
Mr Speaker, let me thank the maker of the Statement. Let me assure the Minister that this House would attend the conference that he is organising for MPs and that we would honestly assist him identify the operations in our various constituencies and sit with him individually to see how —if there are aspects of operations in our constituencies that can be legalized, then the small-scale miners assisted, technical support provided, involving the EPA, so that where we can legalise it, formalise it, and supervise it to be conducted in an environmentally friendly way, we do so. Where we need to enforce the law and ensure that the military and the police move against them, we give them the political backing so that they move and stop all those operations from taking place.
Mr Speaker, I really want to thank the Minister and Colleagues for such a non-politicised contribution and commentary to the Statement that has been made. I want to thank the available Leader because he has been very fair and honest and I think that if he continues along those lines, he would easily become the Leader of the Minority Side.
Hon Emmanuel Armah-Kofi Buah
Ellembele
Mr Speaker, I just want to take the opportunity to thank Hon Members for their contributions. I ran to this hallowed Chamber, the people's Chamber, where representatives of over 35 million people are and my message was that we are in crisis. Our water bodies are gone, our forests are completely on their way. I even made a point that we have some forest reserves that are not-go areas because armed gangs have taken over.
I gave you numbers about the seriousness of the situation. Let me state that I almost became emotional when Hon Shaib was speaking. Because really that is the spirit with which I came here. It is time for us as a country to stop the politics when it comes to this fight against galamsey. The politics must stop at the weather's ridge because this is now about life and death. This is now about the future of our country. Let me state that when I stated that this is what we have inherited, that is what I meant—I meant that this is what—The title of the Statement was “the state of our forest reserves and our water bodies.” I meant this is the heritage of our country and what we collectively have now. This is the inheritance we have. It was not meant politically at all. The whole essence of that Statement was that we have a collective responsibility now to find the solutions. I am happy that the Leader of the House graciously accepted my proposal for a conference.
Mr Speaker, having been in this Parliament for 17 years, I believe that when it comes to our various districts and constituencies, there is nobody who has the interest and commitment that the Leadership of our constituencies and districts than the MP. That is why I believe that this campaign must start with our Colleague MPs. The message is that they take leadership and support us. I was very clear in my mind that this fight is not about the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources. I came to say that we need every Ghanaian, including chiefs, including all stakeholders. We must collectively say that enough is enough. These bad guys can no longer put our lives at risk. I thank you, Mr Speaker.
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