The National Anti‑Illegal Mining Operations Secretariat (NAIMOS) announced today that it will launch Operation WATER SHIELD, a nationwide enforcement effort designed to protect major rivers, watersheds and other critical water resources from the damage caused by illegal mining.
Unlike previous operations that focused mainly on miners and mining sites, the new campaign will go after the wider networks that enable illegal mining to operate. NAIMOS said it will target the “criminal and financial structures sustaining illegal mining”, alongside the miners operating on riverbanks and water bodies.
The secretariat will also increase scrutiny of facilitators, unauthorised manufacturers of chanfang machines, and individuals or companies that rent or supply excavators, water pumps and other machinery used for illegal mining. Enforcements will be “firm, sustained and uncompromising, within the law.”
Equipment seized during enforcement will be immobilised or otherwise dealt with in accordance with applicable laws and established procedures. Excavators, chanfang machines, water pumps, dredging equipment and other machinery used to destroy water bodies will remain key targets.
Operation WATER SHIELD will focus on some of Ghana’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.
The campaign represents a shift from isolated enforcement exercises to a “sustained, intelligence‑led campaign” targeting priority river systems from their source areas through to downstream communities and water‑treatment facilities. It will be carried out in collaboration with relevant security and state agencies to deny illegal miners access to riverbanks and waterways, disrupt their logistics and financing networks, and support the restoration of degraded water bodies.
NAIMOS said its ultimate objective is to “substantially degrade and contain illegal mining within protected watersheds”, while restricting the movement of heavy equipment into critical river systems and disrupting the supply networks supporting illegal mining.
