Protecting the environment should be a collective concern to every citizen in Ghana in order to ensure that the natural vegetation is preserved.
Failure to do so by both citizens and governments will lead the country’s natural resources to destruction. And if this phenomenon of destroying the environment or farmlands does not end , it will not only cause the extinction of some animals and plants species but will have a heavy toll on human lives.
This is the assertion by Member of Parliament for Builsa South in the Upper East Region , Dr Clement Apaak. The education came at the backdrop of reported cases of serious illegal mining in the country despite the public ban on the menace by President Nana Akufo Addo.
Interestingly, Excavators and gold seized by an inter ministerial task force against illegal mining dubbed ‘Operation Vanguard’ which is a composition of a joint security operation are reportedly missing.
The development has raised public eyebrows with many questions being asked about the commitment on the part of government to ending the apparently growing environmental threat.
To make speculations murkier,bigwigs affiliated to government have been mentioned and worst of it is the involvement of officials in the Taskforce against illegal mining.
So far ,the police have made some arrests with efforts underway in retrieving the ‘stolen’ excavators.
But speaking on Daybreak Upper East on A1 Radio , Dr Clement Apaak who is an Anthropologist by training lamented about the lukewarm approach taken by government in fighting illegal mining.
According to him , the President has shown little interest in fighting the crimes against the environment.
“The environment,perhaps the most important if you like foundation based on which we as human beings and other living organisms have to strive be it farming ,water resources,animals husbandry there is nothing we can do up the sky or in abeyance without the environment playing it’s role and that is why protecting the environment essentially means that we are protecting our own livelihood,we are protecting the extinction of our species”
“So when you have a situation where water bodies are being polluted as a result of illegal small scale mining or even for that matter , mining itself with various harmful chemicals like mercury and acidic we have every reason to worry.
To compliment that in terms of the destructive nature of our species and human beings largely as a result of atmosphere outmost selfishness is the destruction of the tree cover and that is where the issue of the fight against illegal harvesting and export of rosewoods also comes in and I will say that I’m very dissatisfied with the current state of the advocacy and fight to protect the environment on both accounts “ He lamented
The Builsa South MP has also accused the Nana Addo’s led-administration of being complacent in illegal mining and the evidence is clear in recent revealing reports that some government officials were involved in the illegal activity.
“It is very clear that there is official complicity in fighting galamsey” he indicated
Source:A1radioonline.com|101.1MHZ|Ghana
