By Hanah Dadzie
Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, Samuel Abu Jinapor says the fight against Galamsey may take a long time, saying the country is not out of the woods yet. This notwithstanding, considerable gains have been made in the fight against Galamsey. Speaking on GBC’s Breakfast Show, Mr. Jinapor said the Ministry will ensure that efforts made are not in vain.
” So have we made some gains in our fight at this galamsey? Let me say first of all that, we are not out of the wounds yet, we have not gotten to a satisfactory situation yet. I will be the first to admit that it wouldn’t take four or five years even if you want eight years or ten years to rid our country of illegal small-scale mining completely”.
”It will take a considerable period of time but that said, we also will have to admit that we have made considerable gains and we have gotten to a point where we can reasonably be encouraged that the proper framework and the building blocks have been put in place to deal with this age-old menace of illegal small scale mining”.
Mr. Abu Jinapor spoke of efforts being made to sustain the gains made by the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources.
”The most important aspect of the effort of the government and for that matter the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources is that all the measures we are putting in place are going to be sustained because we are not going to relent. Because what is happening in the past, when I say in the past, I don’t mean the past as in President Akuffo Addo’s Administration alone, but, in the long past and even in the recent past, we have the measures put in place and then within a year or two, the momentum just waved, and then people looked away then there is a resurgence of illegal small scale mining”.
Watch the full interview below;
