Over 300 trained River guards are currently languishing at home after receiving full training in how to protect river bodies from illegal mining(galamsey) and other forms of pollution.
Whilst, they continue to stay at home for nearly a year now, illegal miners continue to pollute and destroy Rivers.
The recent video making the rounds on social media earlier this week and shown on Metro TV as well last Tuesday depicts a very cruel invasion of illegal miners with their chanfans mounted on various sections of the Black Volta and practically busy destroying and polluting the river.
Suffice to say that it’s quite unfortunate government will spend a lot of money to train all these personnel by the Naval Command of the Armed Forces and in the end refuse to deploy them to discharge their duties for which reason they were trained whilst the age-old canker of galamsey on river bodies continue to fester.
These river Guards under the auspices of the Ministry for Lands and Natural Resources(MLNR) have received training in swimming, water survival technique, boat handling, incidence reporting and intelligence gathering amongst others to equip them to manage, control and stop these ‘galamseyers’ from destroying the rivers.
The Minerals Commission has even secured a security center which will track and monitor the movements of these riverguards so as to prevent them from being corrupted by the miners because their uniforms are fitted with body-cams.
It is quite sad to see the Black Volta in the state it is now due to these nefarious activities of the galamseyers when these river Guards could have easily served their purpose for God and Country.
Mainly, the riverguards are meant to augment the efforts of the ‘Operation Halt 2’ whose output leaves a lot to be desired.
But, sources close this newspaper have hinted or alleged that there is a huge suspicion of interference on the part of the Defense and Interior Ministry in sabotaging the Riverguard project.
Stay tuned…
