NAIMOS Launches ‘Operation Water Shield’

The National Anti-Illegal Mining Operations Secretariat (NAIMOS) has initiated a nationwide enforcement initiative, titled 'Operation Water Shield', aimed at safeguarding major rivers from the detrimental impacts of unauthorized mining activities in Ghana. This new strategy represents a shift from sporadic raids to a persistent campaign targeting critical river systems, from their origins to downstream communities and water treatment facilities.

The focus of Operation Water Shield will be on key river systems such as the Ankobra, Tano, Bia, Pra, Offin, as well as parts of the Black and White Volta rivers. Priority will also be given to the strategic source areas and upper catchments whose deterioration ultimately affects water quality downstream.

The operation will be driven by intelligence and carried out in partnership with various security and state agencies. Its overarching objective is to protect vital water bodies, prevent illegal miners from accessing strategic river corridors, dismantle the networks that support illegal mining, assist in investigations and prosecutions, and lay the groundwork for environmental restoration.

The Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources disclosed that Operation Water Shield aims to achieve six main goals, which include protecting the strategic river source areas, denying illegal miners access to riverbanks and waterways, dismantling mining logistics networks, disrupting the financial and criminal structures that support illegal mining, supporting the restoration of degraded water bodies, and establishing continuous monitoring and enforcement systems to deter miners from returning to cleared areas.

NAIMOS has announced that enforcement will be strict, lawful, and relentless. It emphasized that those engaged in damaging water bodies and riverbanks should anticipate disruption of their operations and seizure of their equipment, in line with established laws and procedures. Excavators, chanfang machines, water pumps, dredging equipment, and other machinery used for water body destruction will be primary targets.

However, the campaign will not stop at the riverbanks, as NAIMOS will also target the broader network that enables illegal mining, including those who manufacture unauthorized equipment, individuals and organizations that rent or supply excavators, pumps, and other machinery to illegal miners, and those who manufacture such machines without the requisite authorization.

The campaign aims to convey the message that Ghana's rivers are not intended to serve as mining sites or waste disposal areas. NAIMOS pledged to maintain pressure on illegal miners and their supporting networks until critical water bodies and river corridors are adequately protected, and conditions are set for their recovery. The statement urged traditional authorities, Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies, equipment owners, local communities, and the general public to contribute to the operation by providing reliable information on illegal mining activities and individuals or entities financing, facilitating, or supplying equipment for such operations.