{"id":95621,"date":"2025-09-24T19:43:34","date_gmt":"2025-09-24T19:43:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=95621"},"modified":"2025-09-24T19:43:34","modified_gmt":"2025-09-24T19:43:34","slug":"galamsey-security-zone-declaration-not-enough-ghana-needs-state-of-emergency-ashigbey-insists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=95621","title":{"rendered":"Galamsey: Security zone declaration not enough, Ghana needs state of emergency \u2013 Ashigbey insists"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The Convenor of the Coalition Against Illegal Mining, Dr. Kenneth Ashigbey, has urged government to move beyond designating forests and water bodies as security zones and immediately declare a state of emergency to confront Ghana\u2019s escalating galamsey crisis.<\/p>\n

Dr. Ashigbey welcomed the Lands and Natural Resources Minister, Emmanuel Armah-Kofi Buah\u2019s announcement that all rivers and forests would soon be declared security zones, warning that illegal miners would operate there \u201cat their own risk.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, he argued that the severity of the environmental destruction requires far stronger measures.<\/p>\n

In an interview on Joy FM\u2019s<\/strong> Newsnight on Wednesday, September 24, he stressed that water turbidity levels in some areas had reached over 94,000 NTU, a development he described as catastrophic and more than enough to justify a formal state of emergency.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe president himself has already alluded to the fact that this environmental crime amounts to an international emergency. I don\u2019t know what else would be needed before a state of emergency is declared,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Read also: Rivers, forests to become security zones \u2013 Lands Minister hints in intensified galamsey fight<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to see what the details of the Minister of Lands has announced but we still think that it is not enough. With the crisis that is confronting us, we need some level of urgency that currently is not coming in.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to him, while the government\u2019s new measures are a step forward, they fall short of the decisive action required to protect Ghana\u2019s rivers, forests, and communities from the devastating effects of illegal mining.<\/p>\n

Dr. Ashigbey insisted that only a state of emergency could marshal the resources, political will, and enforcement capacity needed to restore Ghana\u2019s water bodies and safeguard future generations.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"Ing.The Convenor of the Coalition Against Illegal Mining, Dr. Kenneth Ashigbey, has urged government to move beyond designating forests and water bodies as security zones and immediately declare a state of emergency to confront Ghana\u2019s escalating galamsey crisis.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_2277560469115098_106292521332774":"","twitter_aToxNzczMzI3Njk4OTg4ODUxMjAxOw==_1773327698988851200":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[536,1246,1883,117,10,9,9183],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-95621","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ghana","category-ken-ashigbey","category-national","category-news","category-politics","category-popular","category-staye-of-emergency"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95621","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=95621"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95621\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=95621"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=95621"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=95621"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}