[ 2017-03-23 ]

The lifeless body was found floating in the pit by some community members

BECE candidate drowns in abandoned galamsey pit
A 15-year-old Basic Education Certificate
Examination (BECE) candidate of the Sekyere Himang
Methodist JHS in the Wassa East District of the
Western Region, on Tuesday met his untimely death
when he drowned in an abandoned galamsey pit at
Sekyere Himang.

The deceased, Ransford Donkor, reportedly went to
wash in the abandoned pit after carrying farm
produce from his village to Hemang, which is few
meters away for onward transportation to Beposo, a
popular market centre. His lifeless body was found
floating in the pit by some community members who
retrieved it for burial.

Abandoned galamsey pits over the years have
fatally trapped many people with Illegal miners
and other small-scale miners leaving deep pits
they dig up for their operations.

Whilst others fail to reclaim the pits on the
excuse of the expensive nature of reclamation,
environmentalists blame it on the Environmental
Protection Agency, and the Minerals Commission for
the weak regulation of the sector.

Illegal mining, apart from polluting river bodies,
destroying cocoa and other farmlands also accounts
for the death of many miners.

Source - citifmonline.com

... go Back