Sekondi, Sept. 5, - The World
Bank is to support Ghana with an amount of $50 million dollars in the fight
against illegal mining and the wanton degradation of the environment.
The issue of illegal mining also
known as Galamsey in the local parlance has become a crisis management issue
for the country over the last two years with the government taking pragmatic
steps to end the destruction and pollution of water bodies, land degradation
and chemical pollution due to the bad methodologies adopted by miners in the
sector.
One significant effort by the
government is the ban of the practice, the setting up of inter-ministerial
committee to regulate the sector and ultimately the “operation Vanguard”
taskforce charged to arrest recalcitrant illegal miners who are bent on
flouting the ban and other such laws.
Mr Henry Kerali, the World Bank
Country Director for Ghana, Liberia and Sierra Leone on a team visit to the
Western Region told the Regional Minister, Dr Kwaku Afriyie that already, the
World Bank has gone far with the planning processes on the release of the fund
and hopefully, the government of Ghana world be assisted in that direction to
address the environmental challenges created by the practice.
The funds would also help come
out with innovative ways of schooling people in the business of small scale
mining to ensure that their activities do not hamper sustainable livelihood and
derail the gains chalked in climate change mitigation activities.
The World Bank Country Director
made this known during the start of a three-day official visit to the Region to
assess the progress of work on World Bank funded projects.
The country Director, first
visited the $25 million West Africa Power Pool project (WAPP) which started in
2011 and is expected to end in December 2018.
The Inter-Zonal Transmission Hub
project under the WAPP APL3, program procurement plan, was to reduce the cost
and improve upon security of electricity supply to Burkina Faso whilst
increasing Ghana’s electricity export capacity.
The project primarily comprises
of the construction of circa 200 kilometre of 225 kilo Volt transmission line,
construction of electricity injection source in Navorango and delivery point in
Ouagadougou.
Mr kerali said the project was
being developed to carry out the mandate of Ghana becoming central to power
distribution and a unified regional electricity market.
At the lands commission, the
Country Director was briefed on the success chalked by the Ghana Land
Administration Project and the contribution of the client services unit.
"Currently, land
documentation had improved tremendously with most of delays associated with
land registration curtailed."
The World Bank has so far spent
$46 out of the $50 budget to consolidate and strengthen land administration and
management systems for efficient and transparent land services delivery in the
country.
The team later visited the
Sekondi High court where similar support in terms of accessories and general
upgrading of the court had been done to expedite actions on land litigation.
Dr Kwaku Afriyie, the Western
Regional minister lauded the developmental support given to the country in
general and the Region in particular in terms of the provision of sanitation
facilities, and bore holes to improve the health and well-being of the people.
He said the region could push the
country beyond Aid policy with the right focus and support it with the many
natural resources adding that it could
spark development.
GNA
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