A human right, environmental and mining advocacy non-governmental organisation (NGO), Wacam, has cautioned government to desist from granting environmental permit licence to any company to mine bauxite in the Atiwa Forest Reserve.
According to the Director of Communication and Advocacy of Wacam, Mr. Boakye-Dankwa, mining right inside the Atiwa forest would have disastrous consequences.
He warned that it was not the right thing to do and any such move should be abandoned. The reserve, which forms a major part of the last existing forest reserves in South-Eastern Ghana, according to studies, keeps Accra-Tema area smog-free.
The Densu and Brim rivers also take their sources from this forest reserve. A former acting General Manager and Supervising Chief Editor of the Ghana News Agency (GNA), Mr. Boadi, said it was therefore important that everything was done to protect it, adding that this was in the best national interest. He was interacting with a group of young journalists from various media houses in Kumasi in the Ashanti Region.
The reserve has huge bauxite deposit and international companies are increasingly becoming eager to acquire licence to mine the bauxite, using the open cast technology.
However, Mr. Boadi said it would be a mistake to allow such a highly-prized ecosystem with high species of diversity and hydrological value, to be destroyed through commercial bauxite exploitation.
He also revived the controversy over the actual number of football fans, who died in the May 09, Accra Sports Stadium disaster. He put the real figure at 127 and said the 126 official deaths that people had been made to believe was incorrect.
“Ghanaians should accept to work together to protect our natural resources,” he said.
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