During her parliamentary vetting on Thursday, August 27, 2026, Minister-designate for Environment, Science and Technology Dr. Zanetor Agyeman-Rawlings emphasized that combating illegal mining requires an integrated, cross-sector strategy coupled with rigorous, unannounced chemical testing.
The Korle Klottey MP stressed that seamless inter-agency coordination is critical to breaking operational silos and protecting both human life and the environment.
She outlined that if confirmed, her immediate priority will be aligning key ministries and leveraging decentralized agencies to enhance operational transparency through routine reporting.
“Thank you very much honorable chair, the fight against illegal mining and the subsequent damage that it does to the environment and human life is an all of government and all of society imperative,” she said. “I do believe that the easiest way to address it is to have effective coordination between the ministries, departments and agencies and as you rightly pointed out all of these activities are happening within the local governance space and we have the decentralized EPA and all these agencies at that level as well,” Dr. Agyeman-Rawlings stated.
“The regular reporting improves on transparency, it also helps us to track to what extent impacts are, to what extent interventions are making an impact,” she noted.
“I believe that to start with what I would want to do would be to sit with, should I get the approval from this committee and from the house, would be to sit with the relevant ministers of the various ministries that have an interest in the galamsey fight which would range from the Lands as well as the Local Government to ensure that we are all on the same page to avoid the silo effect,” she said. “So that’s what I would start with in order to have a proper briefing in collaboration with the EPA,” Dr. Agyeman-Rawlings added.
Turning to environmental safety, the nominee highlighted Ghana’s commitment to international hazardous substance protocols, announcing plans to equip the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for surprise field testing of restricted chemicals like mercury and cyanide. To ensure strict accountability without fear or favor, she advocated for stricter border oversight to track chemical importations and expanded monitoring that extends beyond active mining sites to include nationwide soil, surface water, and groundwater testing.
“With regards to mercury, we have them in a matter of protocol which actually has restrictions on the use of chemicals like mercury and cyanide,” she stated.
“I believe that practical steps towards how we monitor this will involve the EPA having spot checks, unannounced checks and tests which means that obviously they have to make sure they have the relevant equipment to test,” she said.
“We also need to make sure that we have at the various points of entry the means to actually track any chemicals that are coming into the country,” she noted.
“We need to make sure that we are also randomly checking perhaps underground water because not necessarily being the catchment area but maybe affected as a result of perhaps water that’s moved downstream. So spot checks not just at the sites where the illegal mining is concerned but across the country to actually assess the extent of spread of the mercury in our groundwater,” she explained.
By: Rainbowradioonline.com/Ghana
