Quarry operators worried over encroachment
The Commercial Quarry Operators Association (COQOA) has expressed concern about the encroachment of its members’ sites.
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It has meanwhile alerted the public to the risks associated with living close to quarrying sites.
Aside from the cracks caused to residential buildings from the blasting and explosions during quarrying, dust from the quarries caused respiratory problems for such residents, especially children, it said.
The COQOA gave the information when its members held a seminar to educate the media on their operations in Accra on Tuesday.
The Chairman of the association, Dr Ebenezer Mireku, said although residents were supposed to live half a kilometre away from stone quarries, people built so close to the sites that the slightest incident that happened at the quarries had an impact on them.
Encroachment
He said there were high incidents of encroachment on sites licensed for stone quarrying operations, explaining that the operators at such sites had licences and land title deeds from the Lands Commission to operate.
He said in view of the development, most members of the association and residents were in court, battling over lands that had been licensed for stone quarrying.
The buffer zones created for quarrying operators seem not to be working, as encroachers had also penetrated those ‘danger zones,’ Dr Mireku added
On December 24, 2015, there was a heavy dynamite explosion at a quarry site at Paebo in the Nsawam-Adoagyiri Municipality in the Eastern Region, killing one person and injuring 10 others.
Following the explosion, about 2,000 residents were displaced because the explosion damaged houses around and beyond the quarry.
Touching on the Paebo incident, Dr Mireku said the Mineral’s Commission was investigating the issue.
Threat to quarrying
A former Director-General of the Geological Survey Department, Mr John Adjei Duodu, in a presentation said the encroachers’ activities did not only affect work at the quarries, but also threatened the future of the quarrying business, which was very valuable in the construction industry.
The stones are also used as artifacts and polished tiles.
Currently, Mr Duodu said about 6,000,000 tonnes of quarry stones were produced annually in the country and that was only half of the demand. He also pointed out that some people had settled in areas with quarry stones
“The quarrying sector creates about 5,000 jobs at an average of 50 employees per quarry operator. Indirectly, it creates about 100,000 jobs including drivers, mechanics and others” he said.
Mr Duodu said an effective collaboration and coordination by the various stakeholders in the industry, together with a backing by the government was needed to curtail the encroachment on the scarce product.
