The government has announced plans to establish a permanent military base along the Ankobra River as part of a decisive war against illegal mining (galamsey).

This follows a high-level inspection of the river on Thursday, September 18, led by Lands and Natural Resources Minister Emmanuel Armah-Kofi Buah, the Western Regional Minister Joseph Nelson, the Western Regional Security Council, and the National Anti-Illegal Mining Operations Secretariat (NAIMOS).

The delegation, which journeyed by canoe from Gwira Wiaso to Gwira Akango, discovered widespread devastation: cocoa farms converted into illegal mining hubs, makeshift buildings in a galamsey hub called Chinese town along the riverbanks, and hundreds of abandoned chanfans and pumps choking the waterway.

The Ankobra River, once clear, now runs thick and milky brown.

The minister, visibly shaken, declared illegal mining on the river a “war on the country”.

He warned miners to vacate or face the full force of the law.

“If this is not war, then I don’t see anything. We will not relent. We will not stop. We will fight until this water is restored,” he said.

“That is why we are working with the President’s directive to deploy permanently the military and security forces along our river bodies.”

Captain Nana Kweku Owusu Domme, who leads NAIMOS, strongly backed the proposal.

“This cannot be solved by one-off raids. We need to actually come and establish a base here to hold the ground. Some of these miners know we just come, conduct operations, and withdraw. Coming to stay here will be best. Then they will know we have come to stay.”

The minister also revealed that the government will revise regulations to extend the 100-metre buffer zone along rivers to one kilometre. Officials say the move will remove any legal cover for miners discharging chemicals into water bodies.

For years, Ghanaians have known the Ankobra was polluted. But this inspection revealed the destruction to be far worse than imagined — a river under siege. With the announcement of a permanent military base, the government is signalling a new, uncompromising phase in the fight to reclaim the nation’s waters.