President John Dramani Mahama has announced an additional GH¢400 million allocation in the 2027 Budget to recruit more Blue Water Guards to intensify the fight against illegal mining and protect Ghana’s water bodies and forest reserves.
He made the announcement during a courtesy call by the Western Regional House of Chiefs at the Jubilee House, where he urged traditional authorities to support anti-galamsey operations in their communities.
President Mahama expressed concern about resistance to operations by the National Anti-Illegal Mining Operations Secretariat (NAIMOS), which he said had sometimes resulted in violent confrontations and deaths.
“We need the help of our chiefs in the fights against Galamsey because you live in the community with the people and sometimes NAIMOS is doing a good job, but sometimes we go into some communities and the youth and the traditional authorities and everybody, you know, fights back at NAIMOS,” he said.
He said the additional funding would enable the recruitment of more Blue Water Guards to patrol rivers and destroy changfan machines used in illegal mining.
“So in next year’s budget, the Minister of Finance has provided another 400 million cedis to employ more of the Blue Water Guards to patrol the water bodies and any time they come across shamfan machines, they’ve been given instructions to destroy them, and so they set them on fire,” he stated.
The President noted that although several machines had been destroyed and major river channels cleared, mud and silt continued to flow from tributaries.
“And so while you have cleared the main channel of the river, you have mud and silt coming down from the tributaries,” he added.
He urged chiefs to collaborate with the government to strengthen the fight against illegal mining and protect the environment.
