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Small-scale miners schooled on health hazards of mining with mercury

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• Mr Lovelace Sarpong (right) addressing the participants

Mr Lovelace Sarpong (right) addressing the participants

Some Artisanal and Small-Scale Miners in the Ashanti and Central regions have been sensitised on the potential health dangers humans are exposed to with the use of mercu­ry in gold processing.

The sensitisation which was or­ganised by PlanetGOLD Ghana proj­ect was to raise awareness about the negative impacts on the use of mercury in mining activities.

According to the PlanetGOLD Ghana Project Coordinator, Mr Lovelace Sar­pong, the use of mercury in artisanal small-scale mining pose health challeng­es that affects the nervous, digestive and immune systems, lungs and kidneys; and may be fatal.

Some Metropolitan, Municipal, and District Assemblies (MMDAs) that benefited from the exercise were Amansie Central, Asante Akim North, Amansie South, Amansie West, Bekwai, and Adansi North in the Ashanti Region, and Upper Denkyira East (Dunkwa-on-Offin) and Upper Denkyira West (Diaso) in the Central Region.

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Additionally, he said inorganic salts of mercury were corrosive to the skin, eyes and gastrointestinal tract, and may induce kidney toxicity if ingested.

He stated that the PlanetGOLD Project has conducted several ini­tiatives to raise awareness on reducing mercury exposure among artisanal and small-scale gold mining actors in the country.

It was to promote mercury-free mining practices in line with Ghana’s obligations under the Minamata Con­vention on Mercury, support the for­malisation of the ASGM sector while advocating the adoption of the CRAFT Code and responsible supply chains, and raise awareness on the availabili­ty of mercury-free alternatives.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Area Head for Konongo, Mr Dawood Abbas, underscored the importance of government’s environ­mental regulations and EPA’s role in ensuring compliance within the ASGM sector.

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He encouraged miners to prioritise environmental stewardship to gain community trust and secure a Social License to Operate (SLO) and reaf­firmed the Agency’s commitment to enforce its commitments under the Minamata Convention.

 BY Cecilia Lagba Yada

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Pragyia rider gets 3 months prison term for biting Police Assistant

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Participants at the event

A 24-year-old tricycle (Pragyia) rider, has been jailed three months by the Nkawie Circuit Court in the Atwima Nwabiagya South Municipality of the Ashanti Region for biting a Community Police Assistant (CPA) at Nkawie.

Abdul Aziz pleaded guilty to the charge of negligently causing harm and was convicted on his own plea.

Police Inspector Kwaku Frimpong, prosecuting told the court presided by Mr Robert Addo that, complainants in the case were officers from the Nkawie Divisional Motor Traffic and Transport Department (MTTD) of the Ghana Police Service.

He said on September 3, at about 8:40am, the complainants led by Chief Inspector Abedi Larbi, were on their official patrol duty to ensure safety at Nkawie township and met the convict, who was in-charge of a Pragya tricycle with registration number M-25-A-3722.

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He explained that, after a careful inspection, it was detected that the convict was without licence and other required documents, so Alhassan Seidu, the CPA, was instructed to lead him to the office for the next action.

On their way to the office, the convict took a different direction, so the CPA directed him to take the right route to the police station, but he disobeyed and attacked the CPA, resulting in a struggle between them.

In the process the convict bit the CPA on the chest, so he shouted for help and some nearby youth rushed to the scene and helped him to arrest the convict.

In his caution statement, he admitted the offence and after further investigations he was charged and brought before the court. –GNA

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Place all 54,985 affected BECE candidates in schools and publish final outcome – NPP urges govt

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The New Patriotic Party (NPP) has urged the government to place all 54,985 candidates affected by the 2026 Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) placement exercise in schools and publish the final outcome.

The party says the government must ensure that the affected candidates secure actual school places rather than merely being allowed to access the self-placement portal.

In a statement signed by the Chairman of the NPP Policy Co-ordination Committee, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, the party expressed concern about the situation facing the candidates.

The NPP said the government had announced that 53,887 of the affected candidates could use the self-placement system after initially being told that they had not qualified for secondary school.

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It, however, argued that access to the portal did not guarantee that candidates would secure their preferred schools or programmes.

“Ghanaian parents and candidates will judge the resolution of the challenge by one thing only: how many of the original 54,985 are sitting in a classroom, not how many were allowed to open a website,” the statement noted.

The party said the government’s own figures showed that the country had 859,828 declared vacancies for 623,072 BECE candidates.

It explained that the main challenge was the concentration of demand in a small number of highly subscribed schools.

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The NPP noted that 313,283 candidates selected Category A schools as their first choice, while those schools had 76,417 declared vacancies.

It therefore called on the government to explore ways to improve schools with available spaces, including providing teachers, laboratories and better programmes.

The party urged the government to use the 85 private schools participating in the Free SHS programme to absorb candidates who remained without placements.

The NPP further called for clarification of the rule and pass mark used for this year’s placement exercise, saying parents were entitled to know the standard before their children sat the examination.

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It urged the government to take urgent action to ensure that the affected candidates were not left behind in the transition to secondary education.

By: Jacob Aggrey

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