The National Anti-Illegal Mining Operations Secretariat (NAIMOS) has launched a sustained national enforcement operation to protect Ghana’s major rivers and water resources from illegal mining, marking what officials describe as a decisive shift from isolated raids to a coordinated, intelligence-led campaign.
The operation, code-named “Operation WATER SHIELD,” was announced in a press release issued on Friday, 11 September 2026, and signed by NAIMOS Spokesperson Paa Kwesi Schandorf .
Targeted Rivers and Strategic Focus
Operation WATER SHIELD will focus on some of the country’s most threatened river systems, including the Birim, Ankobra, Tano, Bia, Pra and Offin rivers, as well as affected sections of the Black and White Volta systems . Strategic source areas and upper catchments whose degradation affects downstream water quality will also receive priority attention .
According to NAIMOS, the campaign will secure priority river systems from their source areas through to downstream communities and water-treatment facilities — a departure from previous enforcement efforts that were often reactive and site-specific .
Beyond Riverbank Miners: Targeting the Networks
A defining feature of the operation is its expanded scope. NAIMOS has stated that enforcement will go beyond miners at riverbanks to target the wider networks that enable illegal mining to operate .
The campaign will specifically target financiers, facilitators, unauthorised fabricators of chanfang machines, and individuals or companies that rent or supply excavators and other machinery for illegal mining . This represents a strategic shift toward disrupting the criminal and financial structures that sustain galamsey operations.
Excavators, chanfang machines, water pumps, dredging equipment and other machinery used to destroy water bodies will remain key enforcement targets . NAIMOS warned that illegal miners operating on water bodies and riverbanks should expect their operations to be disrupted and their equipment seized, immobilised or otherwise dealt with in accordance with applicable law .
Objectives: Degrade, Contain, Restore
NAIMOS outlined six core objectives for the operation: protect strategic river source areas; deny illegal miners access to riverbanks and waterways; dismantle mining logistics networks; disrupt criminal and financial structures sustaining illegal mining; support the restoration of degraded water bodies; and establish sustained monitoring to prevent reoccupation of cleared areas .
“The ultimate objective is to substantially degrade and contain illegal mining within protected watersheds, restrict the movement of heavy equipment into critical river systems, disrupt financing and supply networks, improve water quality and restore effective control over affected river basins,” the statement said .
Cleared river corridors will be continuously monitored to prevent reoccupation and support environmental recovery, particularly in river basins that supply communities, agriculture and water-treatment systems .
Call for Public Support
NAIMOS is calling on traditional authorities, Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs), equipment owners, communities and the general public to support Operation WATER SHIELD and provide credible information on illegal mining activities and those who finance, facilitate or supply equipment for such operations .
Background: A Crisis of Water and Trust
The launch of Operation WATER SHIELD comes amid mounting evidence of the devastating toll illegal mining has taken on Ghana’s water resources.
According to a 2025 analysis, raw water from rivers such as the Pra, Birim, Ankobra, Tano and Offin has become heavily contaminated with silt, clay, undissolved minerals, and traces of chemicals associated with illicit mining. At some intake points, turbidity levels have been recorded tens of thousands of times higher than what treatment plants were designed to process .
The Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL) has repeatedly reported that its treatment infrastructure — designed decades ago — is now operating beyond its intended capacity. Several plants in the Central, Western, Eastern and Ashanti Regions have temporarily reduced output or shut down entirely because incoming water was “untreatable” under current conditions .
At the Daboase Water Treatment Plant in the Western Region, which serves the Takoradi area, turbidity levels reached 11,955 NTU as of 14 August 2026 — far above the permitted level of 500 NTU. Only two of the plant’s four pumps were operational, compounding the challenge of producing safe drinking water .
In the Eastern Region, the Kyebi water treatment plant was shut down due to extremely turbid raw water. Dr Ken Ashigbey, Convener of the Media Coalition Against Illegal Mining, described the situation on Joy News: “If you go to Kyebi currently, the water treatment plant is shut. It is because the turbidity of water you can’t operate it because what will go into it will be sludge” .
The Human and Environmental Cost
The environmental destruction extends far beyond water treatment challenges. Former Environment Minister Prof. Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng disclosed in September 2026 that approximately 10 per cent of Ghana’s total surface area — about 23,853 square kilometres — has been degraded by illegal mining and other harmful activities. He estimated that reclaiming and restoring what has been destroyed would cost approximately $21 billion, with the restoration of the Ankobra River alone costing around $400 million .
Prof. Frimpong-Boateng, who chaired the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Illegal Mining between 2017 and 2021, described galamsey as “the largest environmental crime in our history” and warned that continued destruction was exposing communities to hazardous substances including mercury, arsenic, lead, cadmium and chromium .
The human toll continues to mount. On 29 August 2026, seven individuals died after a mining pit collapse at Asaman Tamfoe in the Atewa East District. In February 2026, a 42-year-old mother and her three children drowned in a water-filled galamsey pit at Wassa Dunkwa in the Western Region .
A Challenging Operating Environment
NAIMOS’s launch of Operation WATER SHIELD comes amid challenges to the Secretariat’s own credibility and operations. In late August 2026, the Lands Ministry was forced to deny that NAIMOS personnel were involved in the shooting death of a young man at Akyem Hemang in the Eastern Region. Spokesperson Paa Kwesi Schandorf stated that NAIMOS had no personnel deployed to the area at the time and that “more often than not, a lot of people parade as NAIMOS operatives,” donning military uniforms and falsely identifying themselves as task force members .
The Secretariat has stressed that its operations are centrally coordinated and carried out in collaboration with other state security and intelligence agencies, including the Ghana Police Service, Ghana Immigration Service, Bureau of National Investigations and the Narcotics Control Commission .
Environmental advocacy organisation A Rocha Ghana has also raised concerns about the scale of the crisis, maintaining that more than 50 forest reserves are being encroached on by illegal miners — a figure disputed by government officials who cited 44 affected reserves. A Rocha Ghana has called for evidence-based verification of the competing figures, stating: “Whether 44, 51, or any other figure is ultimately established, the reality remains that Ghana’s forest reserves are under serious threat from illegal mining” .
What Lies Ahead
Operation WATER SHIELD represents the latest in a long series of government interventions against illegal mining, including military operations, task forces, mining restrictions and alternative livelihood programmes. Prof. Frimpong-Boateng has argued that previous interventions failed to produce lasting results because governments often abandoned enforcement measures and institutional safeguards after introducing them .
As NAIMOS begins this new phase of enforcement, the Secretariat’s ability to sustain pressure, disrupt supply networks, and coordinate across multiple state agencies will be closely watched. The operation’s stated goal — to “restore effective control over affected river basins” — will ultimately be measured not only in equipment seized or arrests made, but in whether Ghana’s rivers begin to run clear again.
