Fight Against Illegal Mining Requires Effective Coordination To Avoid Silo Effect - Dr. Zanetor Agyeman-Rawlings

Minister-designate for Environment, Science and Technology, Dr. Zanetor Agyeman-Rawlings, has said the fight against illegal mining and its environmental damage requires a whole-of-government and whole-of-society approach.

Appearing before Parliament's Appointments Committee on Thursday, August 27, 2026, for vetting, the Korle Klottey MP said effective coordination among Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) is the easiest way to address the menace.

"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.

She said regular reporting will improve transparency and help track the impact of interventions.

"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.

The Minister-designate said if approved, her first step will be to engage colleague ministers with a stake in the galamsey fight.

"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.