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Five persons, including four foreigners, have been arrested for allegedly engaging in illegal mining at Sekyere Obuasi in the Wassa East District in the Western Region. The suspects are Prince Baidoo, a Ghanaian and Managing Director of Dippong Construction, and Cincenzo Stajone and Cielo Dandiela, both Italians. The rest are Wei Jin Jie and Ian Zhang Zhang, both Chinese. They were arrested on the orders of the Deputy Western Regional Minister, Mr Alfred Ekow Gyan, during his visit to Sekyere Obuasi on Monday, May 13, 2013. The suspects were operating an illegal gold mine 80 metres from the Pra River. But Prince Baidoo told the Deputy Western Regional Minister that he was only prospecting for gold under a prospecting licence issued to his company by the Minerals Commission. He explained that the foreigners were technical assistants who were assisting the company in its mining operations. According to him, Dippong Construction had a 47-kilometre square concession and denied allegations that the company was driving farmers from their farms. At the site, a trench had been dug to pump water from the Pra River into a processing plant. After the gold had been extracted, the chemicals and the water were released back into the river, a practice which leads to the pollution of the river. Mr Gyan condemned the illegal mining which was affecting the quality of the River Pra. Additionally, he said, the law which prohibited foreign nationals from engaging in small-scale mining, which is reserved for only Ghanaians, should be enforced. He said apart from the cost incurred by the Ghana Water Company in dealing with the pollution of the Pra River, the supply of water to Sekondi and Takoradi was eventually affected by the mining operations.