There is no denying the fact that activities of mining companies have and continue to impact negatively on mining communities in the country.
Although there are laws regulating the operations of mining firms, it appears these laws have become mere paper tigers that are just sitting down in our law books.
Many inhabitants in mining areas have had to bear the brunt of bad mining practices which have seen huge machines and dangerous chemicals emit unbearable noise pollution and poisonous reaction on them.
It would be recalled that Today in its Friday, May 14, 2010 edition carried a front page story with the headline “Solar mining in…ILLEGAL MINING”.
The said news article provided a vivid report on how a company called Solar Mining has been violating the country’s laws with impunity whiles the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and other regulatory agencies mandated to check these irregularities did virtually nothing.
The report, however, quoted the owner of the company (Solar mining), one Mr S. O. Lamptey, as having conceded that his company was operating without a license, stressing that his company was not the only company operating without license.
“I am not the only person who is operating without a license in the Eastern Region.
There are over 1,000 companies operating in the region without license”, Mr Lamptey intimated in his reaction to our Friday story.
It is against this background that we at Today will like to humbly call on the Okyenhene, Osagyefo Ofori Panin Amoatia II, to take drastic measures to curb the gradually emerging trend before things get out of hand.
The paper’s call is, however, based on the grounds that the Okyenhene has, in recent times, publicly spoken against the activities of illegal mining companies, otherwise known in our local parlance as Galamsey operators.
The paper’s call is also informed by the fact that Solar mining is operating right within the domain of the Okyenhene.
The assertion by Mr Lamptey, for us at Today, is quite worrying as it shows that the Okyenhene is perhaps not doing enough to clamp down on illegal mining within his jurisdiction.
In the light of this, Today will like to emphasize that it is about time Ghanaians, especially the media held our leaders accountable for pronouncements they make.
And, inasmuch us we urge the Okyenhene to step up efforts in clamping down on illegal mining that have taken over his ‘house’, the paper will also like to seize the opportunity to urge EPA, the Minerals Commission and the Ministry of Environment, Science and Technology to, as a matter of national importance, institute full-scale investigations into the matter as we serialize evidence we gathered in the course of our investigations on Solar mining company in the coming days.