The Government of Ghana through the newly established National Alternative Employment and Livelihood programme (NAELP) has reclaimed more than 1000 hectares of land from illegal miners in the Western North Region.
Dr. Carol Louise Donkor, National Coordinator of the Programme visited a some of the areas being dealt with by Dredge Masters, a subsidiary of the Jospong Group of Companies (JGC).
The Company has successfully reclaimed 450 hectares of land from illegal miners (Galamseyers) in the Western North.
Dr. Donkor reiterated that NAELP is aimed toward mitigating the hardships of people unfavorably affected by the activities of illegal miners, and furthermore as a feature of the government's effort to clean the mining space.
The program also incorporates a community mining plan which presents a module for limited scope mining in the country.
She said the project will create jobs for more than 2,000 youth in the affected area through the re-plantation of the lands.
It was against this backdrop that Dredge Masters was shrunk by the government in 2021 to assist with recovering 414 hectares of galamsey lands in Asawinso An and B, Sefwi, Mepasem and Antobia all in the Western North Region.
Addressing the media, the Project Manager for Dredge Masters, Ing. Bernard Asumeng Adjei Saw, said the task was 90% complete.
He revealed that the company was awarded a contract to reclaim 414 hectares of illegal mining lands.
"Yet, the way things are currently, we have even surpassed the all out hectares that we expected to reclaim. We have now done about 450 hectares total," he said.
As indicated by him, the land reclamation was important for different parts of the project, expressing a large number of that, his organization will be moving to stage two of the task which is replanting trees on the reclaimed lands.
Ing Asumeng Saw commended the government for its efforts to reclaim lands damage by illegal mining.
"The govrnment of Ghana has done a generally excellent work. It has contributed tremendously to ensure that this damaged lands by Galamseyers are reclaimed and put to more productive use," he expressed fulfillment.
He, subsequently, appealed to the chiefs in the Western North to help the government in ensuring that illegal miners don't get back to these reclaimed lands.
While bringing up certain challenges militating against the project, the Site Manger of Dredge Master, Gilbert Atima, asked that the various communities within the reclaimed lands be engaged with the tree-planting phase of the project.
As far as it matters for him, a Technical Officer for NAELP, Daniel Fordjour Agyemang, indicate that his outfit has a plan set up which will see the involvement of all the stakeholders, to ensure the supportability of the economic tress that will be planted on the lands.
"Right away we will carry this out for the community to benefit," he assured.
The Chairman of the Small Scale Miners in Juaboso, King George, said the program has been useful to miners in the region.Some of the workers undertaking the re-plantation also shared their thoughts on how helpful the project has been to them.
