Ghana Environmental Advocacy Group reacts to Illegal mining at Akokoaso

Takoradi (W/R), Nov. 08, GNA – The Convenor of the Ghana Environmental Advocacy Group, Mrs Elizabeth Allua Vaah says, the illegal mining activities by the Chinese company, Jia Xin Limited are having a toll on the socio-economic life of the people.

Reacting to illegal mining activities at Akyem Akokoaso, a farming community in the Akyemansa District of the Eastern Region, Mrs Allua Vaah told to the Ghana News Agency that Chinese in Akyem Akokoaso were destroying the land and water bodies with impunity.

Mrs Allua Vaah, therefore, called on the District Chief Executive of the area, the Member of Parliament for the area, Mr. Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, and the Queenmother of the town, to intervene and ensure that the illegal mining by these Chinese was halted.

She said the Ghana Environmental Advocacy Group would not fold its arms while the natural environment was being degraded thereby threatening their very livelihoods.

In a telephone interview with the Ghana News Agency, the Youth Leader of Akyem Akokoaso, Mr Ernest Oteng charged the District Assembly to set up a taskforce to halt illegal mining operations of the Chinese firm.

Mr Oteng said it was sad that oil palm plantation and palm oil production, the mainstay of the local economy and main source of drinking water, River Abuobo, were being destroyed and polluted.

Cocoa farmers who used water from the River to spray their cocoa farms, now have no alternative but to use the polluted river with chemicals.

GNA