The Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources has clarified that the Blue Water River Guards are not working in isolation but in collaboration with Ghana’s armed security services.
In an exclusive interview with ABC News GH on Monday, June 23, Media Relations Officer Paa Kwesi Schandorf explained, “They are well situated because those individuals who have been deployed are not working alone; they are working in collaboration with the armed security personnel.”
Schandorf revealed that the military has been actively complementing the guards’ operations in galamsey hotspots.
“Indeed, the military is complementing their efforts,” he confirmed, noting joint patrols on riverbanks and adjacent forest reserves.
Over 400 recruits, trained at the Ghana Navy’s Ezinlibo Forward Base, have been strategically placed to monitor illegal mining and environmental offences under the Blue Water Initiative.
Highlighting early successes, Schandorf said the guards are keeping “a very watchful look on the water bodies and even some of the surrounding forest reserves.”
He stressed that this coordinated approach has strengthened enforcement capacity and warned against undermining the programme’s gains.
“There is no need to ridicule them; we should believe in them,” he concluded, urging sustained cooperation between security agencies and local communities.
