Alan Kwadwo Kyerematen, the Movement for Change’s presidential candidate, has reiterated his commitment to combating galamsey, or illicit mining, by suggesting life in jail for violators.
Speaking on Tuesday at an Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) presidential encounter in Accra, Mr. Kyerematen described the policies he would implement if elected in the forthcoming general election to protect Ghana’s water resources.
As part of the events building up to the elections on December 7, the political encounter series aims to give a few chosen presidential candidates a forum to clearly articulate their vision and ideas for the nation.
He maintained that a 10-year prison term is insufficient to discourage people from participating in galamsey and emphasized the necessity of more severe penalties, such as life in prison, to put an end to the practice.
Furthermore, Mr. Kyerematen pledged to use cutting-edge machinery to clean up the nation’s contaminated river systems, reassuring the populace of his administration’s dedication to environmental preservation and sustainable resource management.
“Impose a complete ban for one year on small-scale, community mining, whether legal or illegal, within one year we can clean all our river bodies…The introduction of new legislation and regulations will impose a complete ban on any form of mining in river bodies and forest reserves, with associated sanction regimes including life imprisonment for the violation of these new laws.
“Ghanaians, you need to get to the point where when you punish them they will feel the impact of the punishment. If it is just a question of 10 years, the amount of money that they may be getting from galamsey, it will not be enough deterrent, they will go in 10 years, come back and continue, So we have to be serious about how we deal with galamsey,” he reiterated.
Mr. Kyerematen pledged to establish young mining enterprises and provide seed money for them to buy machinery and supplies so they can mine sustainably and responsibly.
His fortified response to the galamsey danger coincides with organized labor’s vow to go on strike the next week in order to force the government to impose a state of emergency over illicit mining.
Source: newsthemegh.com