Tamale North MP Alhassan Suhuyini, MP for Madina Francis-Xavier Sosu, and North Tongu MP Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, have submitted a private members' bill aimed at repealing Section 3(2) of the Environmental Protection (Mining in Forest Reserves) Regulations 2022 (L.I. 2462).

The said LI grants the president of Ghana authority to issue mining leases for exploration within forest reserves in Ghana.

The three National Democratic Congress (NDC) MPs submitted the bill in a formal memo to the Clerk of Parliament on Tuesday, October 22, 2024.

They asserted their mandate as lawmakers included ensuring Ghanaians enjoyed a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment; the executive was controlled against unacceptable expressions of power; and laws and policies to protect public health, ecosystems, and the environment were crafted.

Underlining that Section 3(2) of the Environmental Protection (Mining in Forest Reserves) Regulations 2022 (L.I. 2462) had allowed environmental degradation, resulting in, among other things, health, economic, and social complications.

“Hence, it is in view of the above, and considering that Parliament passed this all-important and consequential L.I. 2462, which among others, grants His Excellency the President, the authority to issue mining leases for exploration in forest reserves, the impact of which has brought so much environmental degradation, as well as health, economic, and social devastation to our country, that we by this proposed Bill, seek to repeal Section 3(2) of the Environmental Protection (Mining in Forest Reserves) Regulations, 2022 (L.I. 2462), which grants the President the authority to issue mining leases for exploration in forest reserves in Ghana,” the MPs said.

Meanwhile, the Effutu MP and Leader of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) side of parliament, Alexander Afenyo-Markin, on October 15 revealed plans by government to present a new L.I. to the House to revoke previous regulations that made it legal to mine in sensitive areas.

Mining has come under great scrutiny in Ghana following the pollution of major rivers in the country and protests against illegal mining.