Dr. Kwaku Afriyie
The Minister-designate for Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation, Dr. Kwaku Afriyie, has proposed a decommissioning and ban on excavators to address the phenomenon of illegal mining activities, popularly known as “galamsey”.
He said the introduction of heavy earth moving equipment to small scale mining in 1989 was the beginning of Ghana’s environmental problems and called for a census of excavators in this country.
“We should even consider a temporary ban on them, decommission some of them, sell some of them off and then put a ban on some of them, and by attrition, get the numbers that we can use for small scale mining,” the nominee told members of the Appointments Committee of Parliament last Friday.
According to him, the Chanfan machines, which are used to wash minerals in water bodies should also be banned, and demanded the nation to outlaw “the unlicenced manufacture of washing plants, because you know that washing plants are going to be used to do galamsey in water bodies.”
Dr. Afriyie said since the unborn generations had a share in the mineral resources of the country, there was the need to regulate mining activities in all forms.
“We should have a law that based on the available resources we have, perhaps not more than 50 square km should be mined at any point in time, just like we regulate frequency modulation in this country,” he suggested
For him, the threat of illegal mining will be dealt with to make the country better off, and pledged his commitment to implement these suggestions when he is given the nod.
Solar Energy
The minister-designate also called for a national conversation on the use of solar energy to form part of the national electrification for the citizenry to be educated on the configuration and placement of solar panels.
He indicated that Ghana had a huge potential for solar energy generation because of its location on the side of the equator, adding that the inclusion of solar energy resources into the national grid could boost the country’s rural electrification drive.
Dr. Afriyie, who is also the Member of Parliament (MP) for Sefwi Wiawso, promised to introduce legislation in Parliament to guide the exploitation of oil and gas resources in the country.
GMOs
On Genetically Modified Organism (GMO) food crops, Dr. Afriyie indicated that he would encourage research into it for improved varieties of crops.
He, however, warned the nation against the adoption of GMOs since that might lead the nation to be dependent on foreign organisms that were alien to Ghana’s genetic pool, adding that this could also change the flora and fauna landscape.
He was hopeful that he would be able to use the law to ward off encroachment on lands belonging to the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research under the ministry, intimating that the ministry would apply the law to also retrieve all encroached lands and protect the rest.
By Ernest Kofi Adu