Members of the Council of State will today begin a tour of illegal mining (galamsey) endemic areas in the country starting from the Eastern Region, Graphic Online has gathered.
The tour is to help equip the Council with firsthand information so that they will be in a good position to better advice the President on the menace of galamsey.
There is an ongoing campaign to ban all forms of illegal and small scale mining so as to help save the country’s water bodies being heavily polluted by illegal mining.
The campaign, spearheaded by a coalition of media houses is putting pressure on the government to act to stop the illegal activity once and for all.
The coalition has decided to go hard on people in high positions including politicians, chiefs and security people who condoned the illegal act.
The campaign this week received a major boost with the development of a project implementation manual.
The manual spells out the actions to be undertaken to deal with the challenge and transform illegal mining activities into vibrant medium-scale businesses in the long run.
Developed by the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources, the manual has timelines, actions and costs and supports the Multilateral Mining Integrated Project (MMIP).
It focuses on law enforcement, the deployment of technology, the involvement of communities, among other actions, in dealing with galamsey.