World Bank to support Ghana with $50million in the fight against Galamsey -Country Director

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 would 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 kilometer 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.

Source: GNA