The Ellembelle District Command of Blue Water Guards has mounted barricades at galamsey-prone zones to stop all galamsey-related equipment and machinery from entering the riverine bodies and forest reserves.
The measure forms part of activities of the government to deal ruthlessly and decisively on the galamsey menace and make it unattractive to the illegal miners.
Mr Stephen Afena, Ellembelle District Coordinator of Blue Water Guards made this known in an interview at Aiyinasi.
He mentioned the six major roads where galamsey activities flourished to include the road from Nkroful to Teleku-Bokazo through to Anwia, Aiyinasi to Nyamebekyere through to Aiyinasi -North.
The others are from Ewereko to Mantukwa through to the border with Prestea and Awiebo to Asasetre road.
The rest are the road from Salma to Akango and Aluku as well as from Nyamebekyere town to Sendu.
According to him, most of the targeted routes were not active for now due to logistics to patrol the areas and equipment to mount the blockade.
Mr Afena said the initiative would be effective because once galamsey equipment such as Chan fang, excavators and other items meant for galamsey were not allowed to enter the bush, it would really discourage illegal miners to halt their operations.
The Ellembelle Blue Water Guards Coordinator said his outfit had intensified its operations to clamp down on illegal mining in the area restoring polluted water bodies.
Mr Afena said the command has identified strategic measures such as tracing and tracking galamsey-related machinery to galamsey sites as well as erecting barricades to disallow the entry of such equipment to enter the bushes and forest reserves.
He cautioned the Blue Water Guards officers to exercise the highest sense of professionalism and remain committed to fighting galamsey by allowing themselves to be compromised by illegal miners by refusing to take bribes giving way to insanity and iniquity to prevail.
Since he assumed office last year, Mr Emmanuel Armah-Kofi Buah the Minister of Lands and Natural Resources had embarked upon numerous interventions to uproot the galamsey canker in parts of the country.
Such bold and ambitious measures include the Blue Water Guards initiative, anti-galamsey task force such as NAIMOS, Tree for Life initiative, the Responsible Cooperative Mining and Skills Development Programme (RCOMSDEP) and the Patriotic Journalists Against Galamsey (PAJAG) initiative launched in recent times.
GNA
