As part of World Environment Day, which fell on June 5 annually, the Ghana Chamber of Mines is calling for effective policy implementation to protect the environment as well as sustain the conservation of the country’s natural resources.

This is in response to the wanton destruction of the environment by illegal miners, against whom a national crusade rages on.

The Chamber considers the country’s “weak regulatory oversight and parochial political considerations” as the reason illegal mining has reached the scale and proportion it has, such that it is now a national calamity.

The Chamber’s concern is well-placed given the national response that the destructive nature of illegal mining has wrought on our environment such that our water bodies are threatened, which, invariably, is a threat to our existence.

The World Environment Day is the proper occasion to reflect on the destruction to the environment by human action, including illegal mining.

Apart from polluting our water bodies and destroying the environment in general, galamsey is also threatening agriculture, particular cocoa production.

It is imperative, this menace is tackled with all the seriousness it deserves.

Even as we highlight the impact of illegal mining on the environment, it is important that attention is also paid to the activities of illegal sand winning, which has an equally devastating effect on the environment.

If we look on unconcerned whilst unrestrained human activity continues to wreak havoc on the environment, then we would be irresponsible and shirking our responsibilities.

World Environment Day should remind us that we need to conserve and protect our environment so that it can sustain future generations the way it has sustained us and generations before us.