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The Defence Minister, Dominic Nitiwul in rendering the account of the third phase of "Operation Halt II" has stated that the military has burnt 40 excavators, 228 shangfang machines, 87 water pumping machines in a one-and-a-half-day operation in the Eastern Region.

He added that 76 wooden structures put up by the illegal miners, one container, 7 generators, 6 plants, 3 motorbikes and one hunter’s gun have also been destroyed in the same region by the military men and other security officers.

"I wish to announce that 40 excavators were burnt this time; the number keeps increasing. Shangfang machines burnt were 228, 87 water pumping machines have been burnt in a just one-and-a-half-day operation of the military working within the Birem river," he recounted.

"The military also burnt 76 wooden structures, 1 container and 7 generators, 6 plants, 3 motorbikes and 1 hunter’s gun also destroyed," he added.

Speaking at the media briefing at the Information Ministry conference room, the Bimbilla Member of Parliament bemoaned the sort of water that will be available for human consumption looking at the magnitude of machines that were being used illegally to mine in the water bodies.

“What sort of river are we going to get? Even if these machines were to be working for a week, you can imagine the damage they would cause; but these machines have not been working for only one week but for years,” he noted.

According to the Defence Minister, the military team observed during the operation that there were many shangfangs on the outrides of the river bodies in the Central and Ashanti Regions than in the Eastern Region.

“In Central and Ashanti, they use more shangfangs within the water bodies; they don’t divert the river courses. They rather sit on the river and pollute the river courses and so you may still find the river course where the navy can go with their boats,” he revealed.

“In the Eastern Region, it is different, the navy could not find the river to put their boats on; they have cleared off the river because the river is the target for mining, and so they divert the river and use the rest of the water for their ponds and mine within the belt of the river and so as for the tributaries of river Birim, most of them are gone; we don’t have them again, the one that feeds river Birim is completely gone,” he reiterated.