NAIMOS Launches 'Operation Water Shield' To Protect Major Rivers From Galamsey

The National Anti-Illegal Mining Operations Secretariat (NAIMOS) has launched a sustained national enforcement campaign to protect Ghana's major rivers and water resources from illegal mining.

The operation, dubbed *Operation WATER SHIELD*, was announced in a statement dated Friday, September 11, 2026, and signed by NAIMOS Spokesperson, Paa Kwesi Schandorf.

According to the Secretariat, the campaign marks a shift from isolated raids to a sustained, intelligence-led operation to secure priority river systems from their source areas to downstream communities and water-treatment facilities.

The operation will focus on some of the country's most threatened river systems including the Birim, Ankobra, Tano, Bia, Pra and Offin Rivers, as well as affected sections of the Black and White Volta systems. Strategic source areas and upper catchments whose degradation affects downstream water quality will also receive priority attention.

NAIMOS said the operation, being carried out in collaboration with relevant security and state agencies, will protect strategic river source areas, deny illegal miners access to riverbanks and waterways, dismantle mining logistics networks, disrupt criminal and financial structures sustaining illegal mining, support restoration of degraded water bodies and establish sustained monitoring to prevent reoccupation of cleared areas.

The ultimate objective, the Secretariat said, is to substantially degrade and contain illegal mining within protected watersheds, restrict movement of heavy equipment into critical river systems, disrupt financing and supply networks, improve water quality and restore effective control over affected river basins.

The Secretariat warned that enforcement under Operation WATER SHIELD will be firm, sustained and uncompromising within the law, adding that illegal miners operating on water bodies and riverbanks should expect their operations to be disrupted and their equipment seized, immobilised or otherwise dealt with in accordance with law.

Excavators, chanfang machines, water pumps, dredging equipment and other machinery used to destroy water bodies will remain key enforcement targets.

The campaign will also extend beyond miners at riverbanks to the networks that enable their activities. Facilitators, unauthorised fabricators of chanfang machines, and individuals or companies that rent or supply excavators, pumps and other machinery for illegal mining will face increased scrutiny and enforcement action.