Tarkwa-Nsuaem MCE, Minerals Commission And EPA Take The Fight Against Galamsey To The Grassroot Levels
Mr Kessie disclosed this in an interview with Soireenews.com on the sideline when his outfit held a meeting with the miners and gold dealers/buyers including the community's stakesholders on Wednesday October 12,2022.
Freeman Koryekpor 
The Municipal Chief Executive (MCE) for Tarkwa-Nsuaem Municipal Assembly in the Western Region, Mr. Benjamin Kessie, has disclosed that his outfit has rolled out human centered and proactive measures to work closely with the Minerals Commission and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to clamp down on illegal mining activities in the various communities within his municipality.
According to the MCE who doubles as the Chairman of Tarkwa-Nsuaem Municipal Security Committee (MUSEC), his outfit together with these state mining regulatory institutions has dividend the Tarkwa-Nsuaem municipality into three mining districts to take the fight against the illegal small scale mining activities to the grassroot levels in the area.
The new initiative, Mr Kessie hinted was part of measures being put in place to promote responsible and environmentally-sound small scale mining activities within the municipality.
Mr Kessie disclosed this in an interview with Soireenews.com on the sideline when his outfit held a meeting with the miners and gold dealers/buyers including the community's stakesholders on Wednesday October 12,2022.
The meeting was organised by the Tarkwa-Nsuaem Municipal Assembly with the support of EPA and Minerals Commission. It was attended by hundreds of miners and gold dealers/buyers including the community's stakeholders.
According to the MCE, the meeting served as a viable plaform to intensify education on the implications of illegal small scale mining activities compounded with the massive destruction caused to the water bodies, forest range reserves and environment by the illegal activities of miners.
The meeting, the MCE noted would also gave him opportunity to engage the stakesholders, miners and gold dealers/buyers in his jurisdiction to ask them to take up the fight against the manace in the municipality.
"We used the meeting to encourage miners to muster courage to caution their colleagues miners, should in case they are doing something ought to be illegal which would affect the water bodies, forest range reserves and environment," he told this reporter.
The MCE noted that during the meeting the
Minerals Commission has done a power point presentation to educate the miners and stakeholders on how to control or contain their waste particles from their mining activities that would not destroy the water bodies and environment.
"You must adopt ways and means to ensure that the wastes generated from your mining activities should not destroy the environment and water bodies," the MCE quoted the presentation of the Minerals Commission.
The MCE mentioned that the participatory miners and community's stakeholders in the resolution signed were committed to ensure that they would not engaged in practices that would degrade the environment.
He told the miners and gold dealers/ buyers that this gold mining business has come to stay with the residents of Tarkwa-Nsuaem municipality and it is a high time for them to do it well in order to destroy the environment and, water bodies and forest reserves.
According to the MCE, he made it clear to the participants that "the Tarkwa Traditional Area is strictly endowed by gold mining and that if the residents didn't wake up to sensitize its activities, and people begin to demonize the system, it would get to sometimes that the whole gold mining systems would be down in the area which would affect them in the future."
The MCE noted that "the moment there is a total ban on mining activities follow by the strict directive from the central government that everybody should go home, it will be going to affect many people in the area."
"So it is a high time for miners to help the Assembly, EPA and Minerals Commission to sensitize the system by way of getting the irresponsible miners out from the system. If all the miners would help the Assembly and government in this direction, some of the good ones would remain in the business," the MCE noted.
He pointed out that during the meeting "we come to the resolution that the Assembly has divided the Tarkwa-Nsuaem municipality into three categorisation of mining districts.
Following the formation of the three mining districts within the municipalty, the MCD said his outfit would be meeting the residents in grassroot levels one-by-one in the various mining categorized districts.
He pointed out that this would be done to educate the residents on how to help government and assembly in the fight against irresponsible and illegally activities of the miners in their respective communities.
He reiterated that we are taking the campaign against the illegal activities of the miners to the grassroot levels in the various communities within the municipality."
He pointed out that the Assembly and the state mining regulatory institutions are going to intensify education by way of engaging the stakesholders to educate the miners.
"We have put together a team of the people including the Small Scale Mining Association, Minerals Commission and EPA and that the team would meeting on Monday October 17, 2022 and after their meeting it would give the Assembly and state mining regulatory institutions its programmes of activities," the MCE disclosed.
To assess the work of the team, the MCE noted that his outfit would form a monitoring team at the Centre.
"As part of the resolution the members of the team would serve as the awareness creators or informal within the communities," the MCE explained.
He said the monitory team would go round in the communities to confirm the reports that would be received from the various communities for which actions would would be taken to address the issue.
The Tarkwa-Nsuaem MCE was quick to explain that it does not mean that the central government and for that matter the Assembly mandates to fight against illegally activities of miners are going to be stopped," adding that "We are going to fight the manace side-by-side."
The MCE was of the view that they believed strongly that when they educated the miners to know how their illegal activities are causing harm to forest reserves and environment they can committed themselves to help in the fight against irresponsible mining.
