{"id":96990,"date":"2025-10-04T11:28:32","date_gmt":"2025-10-04T11:28:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=96990"},"modified":"2025-10-04T11:28:32","modified_gmt":"2025-10-04T11:28:32","slug":"galamsey-water-turbidity-level-now-90k-and-you-say-a-state-of-emergency-isnt-necessary-john-darko","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=96990","title":{"rendered":"Galamsey: Water turbidity level now 90k and you say a State of Emergency isn\u2019t necessary? \u2013 John Darko"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Vice Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Environment, Science and Technology, John Darko, has questioned the government\u2019s reluctance to declare a State of Emergency over the worsening effects of illegal mining, known locally as galamsey.<\/p>\n

Speaking on Joy Prime\u2019s Prime Insight <\/strong><\/em>on Saturday, October 4, during a discussion on President John Mahama\u2019s engagement with civil society organisations (CSOs) on galamsey, Mr Darko expressed concern over the rapid deterioration of Ghana\u2019s water bodies.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe President and his team asked for a state of emergency, and based on that, the people of Ghana voted for him. At the time you were calling for a state of emergency, the water turbidity level was 14,000. Now it\u2019s moved from 14,000 to 90,000 and at this point, you say a state of emergency is not necessary?\u201d he questioned.<\/p>\n

He criticised President Mahama for suggesting he was waiting for advice from the National Security Council before acting. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhen the Constitution gives the President the power to declare a state of emergency, you don\u2019t come and say, \u2018I\u2019m waiting for National Security to advise.\u2019 The President is not bound by the advice of National Security,\u201d Mr Darko said.<\/p>\n

Read also: National Security Council believes we can tackle galamsey without a State of emergency \u2013 Mahama<\/p>\n

He explained that the Supreme Court had already clarified that such advice was not binding on the President, who ultimately holds the final responsibility. <\/p>\n

\u201cIn the end, the buck stops with the President. He makes the final call. If, in his opinion, there\u2019s an emergency situation, he can declare a state of emergency before even going to Parliament,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

According to Mr Darko, delaying such action amounts to neglecting presidential duties. <\/p>\n

\u201cFor the President to say he is waiting for National Security to advise him before he acts, for me, it\u2019s just shifting his duty. He has the ultimate responsibility. He\u2019s the one Ghanaians voted for, and he promised to protect our water bodies,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Mr Darko also criticised the government for appearing unprepared to deal with the crisis. <\/p>\n

\u201cYou have been voted for, you brought your manifesto to the people of Ghana, they listened to you and voted for you. Now, you are calling people to come and advise you on how to fight galamsey. So when you were coming, you had no plan? You had no plan for fighting galamsey?\u201d he asked.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"Galamsey:Vice Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Environment, Science and Technology, John Darko, has questioned government\u2019s reluctance to declare a state of emergency over the worsening effects of illegal mining, known locally as galamsey.<\/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":[196,1966,9836,1883,10,9,8608,9837],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-96990","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-galamsey","category-hp-news-6","category-john-darko","category-national","category-politics","category-popular","category-state-of-emergency","category-turbidity"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96990","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=96990"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96990\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=96990"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=96990"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=96990"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}