By: alusinerehme.wilson@awokonewspaper.sl
Led by the Executive Chairman Dr. Bondi Gevao, a team of staff from the Environment Protection Agency-Sierra Leone (EPASL), on Tuesday wrapped-up raids in mining sites along the Pampana river in Tonkolili district, Northern, Sierra Leone.
The raid according to the EPA-SL Executive Chairman is a continuation of his nationwide unannounced visits to mining sites by way of upping their monitoring game as an agency responsible to protect the environment.
He said they visited the Pampana river in Magburaka, Tonkolili District where they had seized and burnt down illegal dredges that were operational at the site.
He says the EPA has no control over the activities of people on artisanal mining, and the Mines Ministry do Issue licenses to miners with strict directives to protecting the land but many of these small scaler miners are not obeying those guidelines.
“It’s challenging to note that locals who obtains licenses for small scale mining activities are conniving with foreigners to embark on large scale mining along main rivers which is not only a big loss to the state revenue wise but a move exposing our land to dangers, he explained.
The E.C described what EPA is doing as “monitoring robustly for strict compliance. We’re going after collaborators who hires big machines to mine along the Pampana river according to their desires at the expense of the land.
Dr. Gevao has so far warned artisanal miners to obey the government regulations as stated in their various mining licenses and EPA has announced the burning of hundreds of illegal dredges in the Northern region from what they refer to as “operation weed out dredges from the river beds.”
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