Unlawful Mining: President directs suspension of Environmental Protection Regulations, 2023 – Afenyo Markin
The Majority Leader and Leader of Government Business in Parliament has urged his colleagues to acknowledge the daring choice taken by the President to fight the menace of galamsey (unlawful mining) in Ghana.
According to Alexander Kwamina Afenyo-Markin, the Member of Parliament for the Effutu Constituency, the President has bolstered the operational and tactical capability of ‘Operation Halt’ by directing the Minister for Defence to deploy further navy personnel to accentuate the continuing efforts throughout the nation.
“For the first time in this fight, logistics such as naval boats are to be deployed on water bodies to stop all legal and illegal mining activities,” the Majority Leader said. He additionally revealed that “the President has directed the suspension of the Environmental Protection (Mining in Forest Reserves) Regulations, 2023 (L.I. 2462) by the Ministry of Environment, Science, Technology, and Innovation (MESTI) alongside the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).”
Speaking on the fifth assembly of the fourth session of the eighth Parliament of the Fourth Republic of Ghana on Tuesday, October 15, 2024, Afenyo-Markin emphasised that the struggle towards galamsey is a collective effort for the survival and sustainability of livelihoods within the nation. He confused, “Water is essential to our daily survival, and we must take measures to protect all water bodies in the country from pollution. As political leaders and actors, we must commit to this fight sincerely and avoid condemning it publicly while permitting it privately for political gain.”
He additionally praised the President’s name for a nationwide pact on unlawful mining, the place all political celebration leaders would decide to a unified effort. “This pact will ensure we are all on the same page in the fight against galamsey, guaranteeing the protection of our water bodies, forest reserves, and the environment as a whole,” Afenyo-Markin mentioned.
Despite the restricted variety of sittings scheduled for this assembly—about three weeks—the House will take into account a number of essential authorities enterprise issues. These embody the Environmental Protection Agency Bill, 2024; the Social Protection Bill, 2023; the Customs (Amendment) Bill, 2024; the Budget Bill, 2023; the Ghana Boundary Commission Bill, 2023; and the Intestate Succession Bill, 2022.
Additionally, a lot of questions are pending, and numerous sector ministers are anticipated to seem earlier than the House to deal with these points earlier than the recess.
