RESCUE OPERATIONS CALLED OFF (1B)

Story: Moses Dotsey Aklorbortu, Sekondi
Rescue operations at Dompoase galamsey disaster site has been called off due to the threatening signs of more slides.
The search follows a slide that claimed the lives some 18 illegal miners at Dompoase near Wassa Akropong in the Amenfi East District of the Western Region. Sadly, most of the victims happen to women.
The rescue team was made up of the police led by the Tarkwa Divisional Commander and some the illegal miners as well as the town folks.
The grounds have become very soft due to intermittent rains and the countless pits under the mountains, where the disaster took place threatening the lives of the rescuers.
The search became dangerous since there were no proper tools and the map of the pits to carryout effective search; the police resorted to the use of bamboo sticks and shovels and their hands in search of victims dead or alive.
According the Western Regional Crime Officer, Mr Victor Agbetornyo, they were forced to call off the search because the ground had become very dangerous and the top of the mountain had become very weak and could collapse on the team.
He said due to the first slide, “the tree hanging and on the top of the mountain are not firm on the ground, therefore, I will be risking the lives of my men and those helping them.”
The regional crime officer said, they were under resourced, saying “the kind of tools we are using are not the best, shovels, stick and other odd implement are not the best for a rescue operation of this nature.”
Mr Agbetornyo said they were not in a position to tell the direction of the pit and how long it was. “Therefore if we don’t take care, we would be risking our lives.”
“The ground and the tips of the mountain wobble when the wind is blowing sending clear signals that we are at risk,” he said.
“That aside the miners have dug pits all over covered with grass and if care is not taken and somebody falls in that could be the end of the person,” he said.
When the Daily Graphic toured the place with the Regional Police Commander and the Deputy Western Regional Minister, the district chief executive some of the holes were almost under the main street.
The cracked rocks in some of the abandoned pits are very sharp and could cut if care is not taken.
About their impression about what happened, some of the miners said they are not deterred at all and that they would go back saying “that is where we pick our daily bread.”
On the journey back to the Regional office of the Graphic Communications Group Limited in Takoradi, it was common to see people openly carrying out galamsey by the road or dangerously under mountains.
According to some of them they will follow the gold to wherever it surfaces while some of them are sponsored by “big people” in Accra others it is the matter of the being able to purchase mercury and other chemicals needed for the processing.
Others were also of the view that those who have remained underground would give them more lock in their search for gold.