The Ahafo Ano South West District Assembly in the Ashanti region with collaboration with a Non-Govenmental Organization, International Water Management Institute have introduced the Oil Palm Post-Mined Site Reclamation Initiative.
The project aims to protect and restore galamsay sites by planting oil palms and other suitable crops to rejuvenate the environment and support local communities.
The District Chief Executive for Ahafo Ano South West District Assembly, Hon Joseph Frimpong Bonsu, hailed the International Water Management Institute for the initiative. He urged farmers and miners alike fully embraced the reclamation program to restore the degraded lands.
“I am very pleased with the work that the International Water Management Institute has done in Kunsu, they have been able to reclaim the land from mining activities and this testament that if we are able to reclaim our lands, we will be able to get a lot of benefits from it.
“The chiefs must engage the miners and ensure that the miners will cover the mining pits and reclaim the land and by so doing, we will get vast viable lands for farming and other agricultural activities.” He said
During the launching of the program at Kunsu, Dr. Gerald Atempogere , a researcher at the International Water Management Institute urged miners either licensed or not to ensure they cover all mining pits and embrace the Oil Palm Post-Mined Site Reclamation Initiative in order to restore degraded land.
He explained that, his outfit is willing and ready to support miners and farmers including the marginalized in the community with free seedlings to enable them start the land reclaiming process.
“My advice goes to the miners, when you are done mining, you have to cover the pit and you can also plant palm trees to reclaim the land after mining on that piece of land, we at the International Water Management Institute, is ready to give the miner the needed training to reclaim the land.
“My advice to the women and people living with disability is to take advantage of this project because there are a lot of benefits they can get from this project.” He told the media
Ahafo Ano South West District Works Engineer, Alexander Kello, expressed his profound gratitude to the International Water Management Institute for their good work done.
Engineer Kello, appealed to government to actively involve traditional leaders in the fight against galamsay as he is of the view that, the fight against illegal will only be successful with the involvement of traditional chiefs.
“I want to tell our leaders that these kind of work in our local districts is the responsibility of the government but by God’s grace an NGO that is the International Water Management Institute has taken the responsibility to help us rectify things we are doing to destroy our environment and by so doing getting foodstuffs in the district or the country as a whole which was becoming a problem will cease.
“I will plead with the government to as a matter of urgency meet all stakeholders especially the chiefs and come out with the best solution to end galamsay activities in the country.
“The chiefs are the custodians of our lands and if we truly wants to put an end to galamsay, then government must engage them and make them participate actively in the fight against galamsay. If a chief refuses to allow galamsayers operate on his land, there is no way they can operate on the land because we have a lot of respects for our traditional leaders more than the politicians.” Engineer Alexander Kello said.
Source: Elvisanokyenews.com
