Connect with us

Environment

Ashanti groups take on GIADEC over bauxite mining in Nyinahin Forest Reserve

Published

on

Ashanti groups take on GIADEC over bauxite mining in Nyinahin Forest Reserve

Some groups in the Ashanti Region are threatening to stop the mining of bauxite in the Nyinahin Forest Reserve over what they call lack of transparency by the Ghana Integrated Aluminum Development Corporation (GIADEC) in its dealings with the host communities.

The groups are also calling for the immediate dissolution of the GIADEC Board due to the absence of leaders of the host communities on the recently constituted board.

In January this year, traditional authorities within the Tano-Offin Forest Reserve enclave in a statement accused the corporation of not being transparent as far as plans to mine bauxite in the area were concerned.

Read also: Facilitate more exploration projects to mitigate impact of COVID-19 – Kosmos to Gov’t

Speaking at a news conference in Kumasi, Nana Oti Awere, Spokesperson for a group known as the Asante Kotoko Society, asked GIADEC to be open in its dealings with the people.

“The GIADEC Board is following old fashioned principles to come and destroy our area. We are not going to allow that, so we call on the government to ask GIADEC to withdraw the tender, regardless of how far they have gone. They should withdraw it. We also call on the government to dissolve the board of the Ghana Integrated Aluminum Development Corporation because Asanteman has very little say on the board, and we can’t allow that to happen. If they dare ignore what we are saying, and they come to Nyinahin to mine any bauxite, there will be fireworks,” he said.

Last year, the Ghana Integrated Aluminum Development Corporation downplayed suggestions that the country’s pursuit to mine bauxite reserves in the Atewa Forest will lead to the destruction of three of the country’s water bodies which take their sources from the reserves.

The three rivers, Birim, Densu and Ayensu provide the source of drinking water for more than five million Ghanaians.

Speaking at a press conference, Michael Ansah, GIADEC’s CEO, said mining in the forest reserve will not be carried out close to the three rivers, and as such as concerns that the bauxite mining will endanger them could not be true.

“If you look at the map of the mining concessions, where they [the three rivers] will be, for the Birim and Ayensu, their sources will be about 10 km from the points of these mining, while the Densu’s will be 15 miles away,” he said.

Atewa Forest

The Atewa forest is part of the Guinean Forests of West Africa which stretch from southern Guinea into eastern Sierra Leone and through Liberia, Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana into western Togo.

Deforestation has massively reduced the size of the forests and the Upper Guinea Forest is now restricted to a number of more or less disconnected reserves and a few national parks acting as man-made refuges for the region’s biodiversity.

Source: Nerteley Nertey||citibusinessnews.com

Jeorge Wilson Kingson is the Managing Editor of ArtCraft Media Consult (Publishers of GhanaNewsOnline.com.gh and BusinessweekGhana.com), and a consulting Editor for The Corporate Guardian Magazine. He is the Chairman of the Media Alliance in Tobacco Control and Health (MATCOH). He is also the National Coordinator for the International Standards Journalism Association (ISJA) and the National Online Newsportals Coordinator for the Private Newspaper and Online Newsportals Publishers Association of Ghana (PRINPAG). He is a senior member of Ghana's Parliamentary Press Corps. He is the ACS Global Cancer Ambassador for Ghana and a Peace Advocate

Advertisement
10 Comments

10 Comments

  1. poker 88

    September 4, 2020 at 1:56 pm

    *You are a very persuasive writer. I can see this in your article. You have a way of writing compelling information that sparks much interest.

  2. Irena Rollheiser

    September 6, 2020 at 4:00 am

    hi, your post is amazing.Following your news.

  3. Princess Siemonsma

    September 6, 2020 at 7:15 am

    hello, your post is very good.Following your posts.

  4. Putin

    September 15, 2020 at 6:43 am

    It’s a shame you don’t have a donate button! I’d most certainly donate to this excellent blog! I suppose for now i’ll settle for book-marking and adding your RSS feed to my Google account. I look forward to new updates and will talk about this blog with my Facebook group. Talk soon

  5. Putin

    September 15, 2020 at 10:19 am

    “What’s up it’s me, I am also visiting this web page daily,
    this site is in fact pleasant and the users are
    genuinely sharing pleasant thoughts.”

  6. Putin

    September 16, 2020 at 4:52 am

    I have learn several good stuff here. Definitely value bookmarking for revisiting. I wonder how much effort you put to make the sort of magnificent informative site.

  7. tente sangek

    September 16, 2020 at 5:43 pm

    *This is really fascinating, You are a very professional blogger. I’ve joined your rss feed and sit up for searching for more of your great post. Also, I have shared your site in my social networks!

  8. tente sangek

    September 28, 2020 at 10:50 am

    *Some times its a pain in the ass to read what people wrote but this web site is very user friendly ! .

  9. tente sangek

    September 28, 2020 at 12:39 pm

    *Glad to be one of the visitors on this awe inspiring web site : D.

  10. buy carts USA

    October 1, 2020 at 4:31 am

    i very proud of this post keep it up

Leave a Reply

Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Quick Poll

Trending