US Ambassador to Ghana Virginia Palmer has waded into the ongoing conversation on illegal mining with a charge to government and Ghanaians to be aggressive in the fight.
Virginia Palmer also wants regulations on mining and illegal mining enforced.
Speaking at a meeting with some journalists on her maiden visit to Kumasi, she disclosed that a Congressional delegation from the House of Representative Natural Resource Committee has been to Ghana to look into water pollution and impact on fishes from illegal mining.
She said “we have had talks with the Asantehene and the Council of Chiefs on illegal mining.”
“The thing is that these illegal miners need to make a living and so are active in doing it but the powers behind galamsey are the real ones responsible for the evils,” she intimated
She was worried about the negative impact of the menace on cocoa, environment and the economy at large.
“The illegal miners are wrecking real environmental havoc on rivers, having impact on cocoa, crops and all of these things have negative consequences for the economy of Ghana if steps are not taken to prevent the use of excavators,” she advised.
By Beatrice Spio-Garbrah|Akoma FM|Onuaonline.com
