Western Regional Minister storms Bonsar with security forces, as illegal miners takeover Bonsar River banks

All the banks of Bonsar River at Bonsar in the Tarkwa Nsuaem Municipality of Western Region have been taken over by illegal mining operators.

They are destroying not just the environment along the river banks, but the main water body feeding the Head Works of Tarkwa Station of Ghana Water Company Limited.

Consequently, Western Regional Minister, Joseph Nelson, has stormed the illegal mining sites at the Bonsar Head Works Station in the Tarkwa Nsuaem Municipality of Western Region with security forces to flush out illegal miners who are working on daily basis to pollute the Bonsar river.

Speaking in an interview shortly after the operations, the minister, Joseph Nelson, said the exercise will continue until the river banks in the region have been duly cleared off illegal mining activities and the water bodies purified to their natural states.

He said the main purpose of carrying out the operations despite logistical challenges is to take back the region’s water bodies absolutely taken over by illegal mining operators.

The level of pollution of the river, through the banks, according to the minister, has gotten out of hand and has forced the Ghana Water Limited out of operations in the area.

“We have had reports about galamsey activities along the Bonsar River, which is hampering the work of Ghana Water Limited to the extent that they are unable to supply Tarkwa Municipality and its environs with the needed potable water for their livelihoods.

“Today, I have come to see things for myself and my worse fears have been confirmed,” he remarked with an astonishing anger.

The illegal mining operation, sanctioned and led by the minister, lasted for two hours on Thursday, April 10, 2025.

At the scene at Bonsar, three suspects who were caught red handed at the various mining sites were immediately rounded up by the security forces accompanying the minister and his delegation.

Describing the careless abundance of the illegal miners as reckless, the minister noted; “It is so sad to see river body as big as Bonsar being reduced to this. Today, they are unable to process the water because it is so heavily silted.

“This river is so heavily silted. The turbidity level is unimaginable. The colour, I am told that is supposed to be 50-100, is around 7000 and so, cost is going up, and the quantity they are supposed to supply to Tarkwa and its surrounding area is also largely reduced.”

Those arrested were Joshua Boateng, 20 years, an excavator apprentice; Joshua Kyere Ishmael, 24 years, washing bay operator at Bogoso; and Godwin Bagbetor, 29-year-old taxi driver.

In addition, all water pumping machines at the various mining sites, solar panels powering electricity at the site, gallons of diesel and petrol, as well as the temporal sheds erected at the sites, were all set Ablaze by the security forces who accompanied the minister to the operational zones.

The minister said, “Of course, there are some challenges to deal with logistics, and we will scale them in order to deal with this fundamental problem that is affecting the lives of the people here.”

He reiterated his commitment to collaborate effectively with stakeholders, especially the security forces to tackle the issue of illegal mining head-on.

“It needs commitment, and that commitment I have, to decisively deal with this issue,” Joseph Nelson concluded.