Residents in the Konzokala Community in the Jirapa Districts in the Upper West Region have been advised to desist from aiding foreigners who engage in illegal mining in the area.

District Chief Executive for Jirapa Vivien-Nelly Kunko who expressed shock at the level of degradation tasked the chief and the assembly member of the area, Salia Stephen Dafaa to work together with the assembly to halt the unfortunate activity in the area.

The DCE who visited the area with some security personnel managed to apprehend one person while about 40 of them run away. The DCE explained that those involved in the galamsey activities were mostly foreigners from neighboring countries like Côte d’Ivoire, Burkina Faso, Togo, Nigeria among others. She charged the Assemblyman, the chief and opinion leaders in the Konzokala community to deliberate and report to her on possible ways to bring the situation under control.

The Assemblyman for the Konzokala community, Salia Stephen Dafaa told Ghanadistricts.com that a meeting by chiefs and leaders of the community have resolved among other things that Jirapa Police should takeover patrols around the boundaries between Jirapa and Lawra adding that they suspect the foreigners have some sort of agreement with the Lawra Patrol team hence their easy access into Jirapa.

According to him, the foreigners engage in their illegal activities without the consent of any authority as such do not pay any levy or money to anybody. The assemblyman said though they do not dig deep trenches, they destroy farmlands. ”We have to stop them before they get into serious operations that will be difficult to deal with”, he stated.

He, however, hinted that the district may soon have serious mining operations taking place as some companies like Golden Valley have expressed interest and will soon be conducting feasibility studies to determine viability of mining in the area.

Illegal mining is now a bane in most communities that are suspected to have deposits of mineral resources especially gold as small scale mining and illegal mining have led to total destruction of vegetative cover rendering most lands unproductive for agriculture purposes. The security implications are also of great concern to authorities who are doing everything possible to deal with the situation.

Dominic Shirimori/Ghanadistricts.com