Dr Ken Ashigbey, Convenor of the Media Coalition Against Galamsey, has outlined a set of stringent measures aimed at controlling illegal mining, known as galamsey, by the Coalition Against Galamsey.

He stressed that the activities of illegal miners are wreaking havoc on the environment and declared that the coalition will not allow any individual or group to derail their efforts.

Speaking in an interview on the AM Show on Wednesday, December 4, Dr Ashigbey highlighted the need for political parties to sign a pact to combat illegal mining. He noted that, due to the busy campaigning schedules of the various parties, the pact will be sent to them for signing.

“This is an existential threat, this is us dying. Our streams are being poisoned, our environment is being destroyed. So, we need to fight it. One of the things that the Ghana Coalition has put forward, which organized labour has also supported, is the signing of the pact. The political parties themselves are just busy out in the field, we then had to send the pact to all the political parties and asked them to sign,” he explained.

Dr Ashigbey also revealed that a press conference will be held on Thursday morning at the International Press Centre, in collaboration with the University Teachers Association of Ghana (UTAG) and other organizations, to highlight the parallels in their fight against illegal mining. Additionally, he confirmed that all political parties that sign the pact will be publicly named.

He called on other associations interested in the fight against galamsey to join forces in the efforts to end illegal mining.