The Deputy Lands and Natural Resources Minister, George Mireku Duker, has admitted gaps in government’s fight against illegal mining, known as galamsey.

He says although the galamsey fight has not been entirely successful, government is putting in practical measures to confront the menace.

“I wouldn’t say the government failed totally [in fighting galamsey], and I wouldn’t also admit that government had 100 per cent. However, there were gaps that we have to reposition ourselves to correct.”

“There are practical measures we’ve put in place. For example, just recently, some foreign nationals were arrested on one of the river bodies of which I led a security task force to get them arrested. They are being prosecuted, some have been put behind bars,” he indicated.

This comes after the decision last week by the Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL) to ration water.

The company said the situation has arisen due to the high turbidity of the water sources and has pointed to illegal mining as one of the primary sources of the problem.

Communications Manager of the GWCL, Stanley Martey, revealed this in an interview on The Pulse, Monday.

“The water situation currently in the country is not very bad except that if we do not work at rectifying the situation as it is now, we may fall into a crisis. But currently, we are treating water.”

“We are working at producing around 60% capacity, which is not enough for the population though, but we are managing the situation, and that is why we are doing the water demand management so that at least we can have a little water in the system so that the population can survive on the water that we have,” he said.

Meanwhile, Convener for the Media Coalition against Galamsey, Ken Ashigbey, believes the problem in the galamsey fight lies in the ineffective execution of the plan to eradicate the menace.

“The problem has been the execution. We are going to get to the point where we are going to track all excavators; we are going to even geofence them in terms of when they are imported into the country.