The National Anti-Illegal Mining Operations Secretariat (NAIMOS) has launched a sustained national enforcement operation to protect Ghana’s major rivers and water resources from illegal mining.
The operation, code-named “Operation WATER SHIELD,” was announced in a press release issued on Friday, September 11, 2026, and signed by NAIMOS Spokesperson, Paa Kwesi Schandorf.
According to NAIMOS, the operation marks a shift from isolated raids to a sustained, intelligence-led campaign to secure priority river systems from their source areas to downstream communities and water-treatment facilities.
Targeted Rivers
Operation WATER SHIELD will focus on some of the country’s most threatened river systems, including the Birim, Ankobra, Tano, Bia, Pra and Offin rivers, as well as affected sections of the Black and White Volta systems.
Strategic source areas and upper catchments whose degradation affects downstream water quality will also receive priority attention.
Scope of Operation
NAIMOS says the operation, to be conducted in collaboration with relevant security and state agencies, will:
– Protect strategic river source areas;
– Deny illegal miners access to riverbanks and waterways;
– Dismantle mining logistics networks;
– Disrupt the criminal and financial structures sustaining illegal mining;
– Support the restoration of degraded water bodies; and
– Establish sustained monitoring to prevent reoccupation of cleared areas.
“The ultimate objective is to substantially degrade and contain illegal mining within protected watersheds, restrict the movement of heavy equipment into critical river systems, disrupt financing and supply networks, improve water quality and restore effective control over affected river basins,” the statement said.
Firm Action Against Illegal Miners
NAIMOS has warned that enforcement under Operation WATER SHIELD will be firm, sustained and uncompromising, within the law.
“Illegal miners operating on water bodies and riverbanks should expect their operations to be disrupted and their equipment seized, immobilised or otherwise dealt with in accordance with applicable law and established procedures.”
Excavators, chanfang machines, water pumps, dredging equipment and other machinery used to destroy water bodies will remain key enforcement targets.
The Secretariat added that the campaign will go beyond miners at riverbanks to target facilitators, unauthorised fabricators of chanfang machines, and individuals or companies that rent or supply excavators and other machinery for illegal mining.
Cleared river corridors will be continuously monitored to prevent reoccupation and support environmental recovery, particularly in river basins that supply communities, agriculture and water-treatment systems.
Call For Public Support
NAIMOS is therefore calling on traditional authorities, Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs), equipment owners, communities and the general public to support Operation WATER SHIELD and provide credible information on illegal mining activities and those who finance, facilitate or supply equipment for such operations.
