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By: Samuel Asamoah
By The Lower Volta Association of Small-Scale Miners and Farmers has accused the National Anti-Illegal Mining Operations Secretariat (NAIMOS) of destroying more than 15 dredgers and chamfines along the Lower Volta, warning that the operation could push hundreds of people dependent on the sector into unemployment and illegal minin
The association says the destruction occurred at Sogakope, Battor, Mepe and other communities along the Lower Volta, despite ongoing engagements with the Office of the President and National Security over arrangements to regulate its members’ operations.
Addressing journalists on Tuesday, Founder of the association, Godwin Ogah Awudi, said the destruction was carried out while discussions with security authorities were still ongoing.
He alleged that personnel in uniform began vandalising and destroying the equipment, contrary to an understanding reached during engagements with National Security.
“We were engaged at our respective districts. During the process of engagement, we realised that people in uniforms had started vandalising and destroying our equipment, contrary to the engagement and discussions we had with the National Security officers,” he said.
Mr Awudi described the operation as illegal, arguing that it contradicted an arrangement under which members were expected to continue working for a maximum of two weeks while discussions on possible concessional arrangements were being pursued.
He said the association was formed in response to government’s call to end illegal mining and had since been operating under directives from the Volta River Authority (VRA), Water Resources Commission, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Minerals Commission.
The agreed conditions, he explained, included maintaining a 20-metre buffer from riverbanks, preventing oil spills, clearing aquatic waste and undertaking dredging activities to ensure the free flow of water into the sea.
Mr Awudi questioned the rationale behind NAIMOS’s intervention while engagements with the relevant state institutions were still underway.
He warned that the destruction of the equipment had placed the livelihoods of members and their dependants in jeopardy, noting that each dredger supported more than 30 people.
He expressed concern that affected operators could return to illegal mining in forest areas if their existing livelihoods were destroyed without alternative opportunities to work legally.
“We fear that the government’s fight against illegal mining will fail because, as our members are threatened and they destroy our source of livelihood, the sand dredging here, we are going back,” he said.
Mr Awudi disclosed that the association had already lost several members to illegal mining activities in forest areas, attributing the development partly to the uncertainty surrounding their operations along the Lower Volta.
He stressed that the association was not seeking to operate outside the law but wanted portions of existing concessions ceded to its members to enable them to undertake regulated activities and pay the appropriate taxes and levies to the government.
According to him, the entire Lower Volta has already been designated for dredging under concessions held by other operators, leaving the association seeking access to portions of the concessions to sustain its members’ livelihoods.
The association has consequently appealed to President John Dramani Mahama to intervene and facilitate the regularisation of its operations through a coordinated task force involving the EPA, National Security, Minerals Commission, Water Resources Commission and VRA.
The proposed task force, Mr Awudi said, should supervise dredging, fishing, fish farming and clam harvesting to ensure that economic activities along the Lower Volta are undertaken within an agreed regulatory framework.
“We are appealing to government to regulate and regularise our operation, for us to have ceded concessions so we can pay the appropriate levies and taxes to government while we also work and feed our families as required,” he added.
The association has also invited the media to visit the affected communities to independently verify the reported destruction and assess its impact on members and their dependants.
NAIMOS was yet to respond to the allegations at the time of filing this report.
The development raises questions about coordination among state agencies involved in regulating river-based economic activities, the enforcement of environmental laws and the need to balance the fight against illegal mining with sustainable livelihood opportunities for affected communities.
