A sustainability consultant and lecturer at the University of Media, Arts and Communications (UniMAC), Dr Paa Kwesi Aduafo Abaidoo, has challenged the National Anti-Illegal Mining Operations Secretariat (NAIMOS) to demonstrate the environmental impact of its operations through verifiable data on water quality and forest restoration.
He said the effectiveness of the fight against illegal mining, popularly known as galamsey, should be measured not merely by arrests and equipment seizures but by tangible improvements in the condition of the country’s water bodies and forest reserves.
Speaking on Metro TV’s News Night on Thursday, October 22, 2026, Dr Abaidoo was reacting to an operational update provided by NAIMOS.
While commending the Secretariat for the briefing, he called for regular public updates, preferably every three months, to enable Ghanaians to assess progress in the fight against illegal mining.
He, however, expressed concern that NAIMOS was still planning interventions in some affected water bodies instead of having already deployed personnel to areas where illegal mining remained active.
“There are few weaknesses that I feel ought to have been comprehensively addressed and at this stage, I was not expecting some intervention which will seem like we are still planning to do other things,” he told host Efua Andoh.
He said the expectation was for the Secretariat to demonstrate that measures were already in place to protect vulnerable water bodies rather than repeatedly announcing plans for future operations.
‘We cannot recycle the problem’
Dr Abaidoo called for sustained deployment of personnel to vulnerable water bodies and forest reserves, warning that temporary interventions could allow illegal miners to return once security operatives withdrew.
He argued that the presence of personnel in selected forest reserves should form part of a broader and continuous strategy covering water bodies and other areas affected by illegal mining.
“I also think that it’s not only having a permanent station at the selected forest but we need to ensure that the operations of NAIMOS is well sustained not just in the forest reserves but across all our water bodies. We cannot recycle the problem,” he said.
He cautioned that driving illegal miners away without maintaining surveillance and enforcement could only provide temporary relief.
“If not, we will drive them away and as soon as the soldiers leave, they will come back,” he added.
The sustainability expert described illegal mining as a national emergency, urging the government to commit the resources required for a comprehensive and sustained response rather than relying on isolated interventions.
Environmental data needed to measure progress
Dr Abaidoo further called on NAIMOS to establish clear performance indicators against which its operations could be assessed.
He said regular assessments of water quality, the condition of forest reserves and other environmental indicators would provide a more reliable basis for determining whether anti-illegal mining operations were achieving their intended objectives.
“We need to see the output of NAIMOS intervention manifest in the water quality that we are seeing, in the forest reserves and all the other indicators that will show that they are working. We also need a verifiable evidence in terms of the water quality level not just arrests and seizures,” he said.
He proposed that the Secretariat benchmark its performance against established environmental baselines and report measurable changes in each quarterly update.
Such an approach, he argued, would enable the public to determine what progress had been made over a specific period and whether interventions were producing lasting results.
NAIMOS urged to track prosecution of suspects
Beyond enforcement and environmental monitoring, Dr Abaidoo called on NAIMOS to strengthen its follow-up on suspects handed over to the Ghana Police Service for prosecution.
He proposed that the Secretariat establish a dedicated unit to track cases referred to the police and determine whether the suspects were actually being prosecuted and the law was taking its course.
He said such a mechanism would enable NAIMOS to account to the public for the outcomes of its operations rather than ending its responsibility after making arrests and handing suspects over to the police.
Dr Abaidoo also suggested that the Ghana Police Service should participate in NAIMOS briefings when necessary to provide updates on the prosecution of cases arising from anti-illegal mining operations.
“If there’s the need for the NAIMOS to bring the Police during the update to brief on the prosecutions, they need to do it,” he said.
His recommendations place the emphasis on environmental recovery, sustained enforcement and prosecution outcomes as key measures of success in Ghana’s fight against illegal mining.
