A member of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) Communications team, Ellen Ama Daaku has disagreed with claims that water bodies in the country have gotten murkier due to galamsey activities.
Speaking in an interview on TV3’s New Day on Thursday, September 12, 2024 Ellen said the river bodies were dirtier under the John Mahama administration in 2016 due to galamsey activities.
She argued that it is inaccurate for anyone to say the rivers have become worse as a result of galamsey activities under the NPP administration.
“I don’t think the water has gotten murkier. I believe that yes, people are mining on the river bodies. Let’s agree on that.
“Who said in 2016 our rivers wasn’t this bad? It was worse because we had the chanfans actually sitting on it now people are actually going on the rivers to mine at night because they know during the day if they go, the police and the whole team will be after them so when you do tell me that it was better then, it wasn’t any better,” she said on The New Day Show.
She emphasized that had it not been the commitment of President Akufo-Addo to end the menace, the current state of the rivers would have been much worse.
According to her, the New Patriotic Party (NPP) would continue to fight the galamsey menace if they win the 2024 elections.
“If government has given up on the fight like they [NDC] did in 2015/2016, by now I’m sure that all our waters would have been over ran.
“I believe that we have to work hard but then you have to ask us as political parties, what are your plans towards it because this is an ongoing fight. The NPP has said that when we come, we are going to continue with the fight, with what we have done and put in measures to move these people from the rivers to giving them properly constituted areas to mine. They are Ghanaians, you cannot stop all of them at once,” she added.
In the past few days, pressure has piled up on government to take a drastic action against galamsey activities in the country. Some unions have called on the government to declare a state of emergency in areas where river bodies have been polluted due to galamsey.
Organised labour has also threatened a two-week strike action if government takes no action against galamsey by September 30.
