The flagbearer of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), John Dramani Mahama has expressed deep concern about the environmental degradation occurring in Ghana and the drought that has hit the northern part of the country.
Mahama attributed the recent severe drought in northern Ghana to illegal mining activities, commonly known as galamsey, and what he said is the widespread destruction of farmlands.
Speaking at the NDC’s manifesto launch at the University of Education, Winneba on Saturday, Mahama promised to drive out illegal miners from Ghana’s forest reserves and halt all degrading activities in his attempt to restore the country’s vegetative cover
“We are going to close the forest reserves and get all those Akonta Mining and all of them who have desecrated our forest reserves. We are going to march them out of the forest reserves. Some of those trees in the forest reserves are 700, 800, 1000 years old and just because you want to take a little gold from there, you go and destroy the whole forest reserve.
“That is why we are having drought in our country today and our cocoa industry is going down because we are not getting enough rainfall because looking for that small gold they will get, they are destroying all the forest reserves and destroying the climate in our country. After January 7, if you are not out of the forest reserve, we are going to come and march you out of the forest reserve.”
Source: Bervelyn Longdon
