Salma — A Deputy Minister for Energy in charge of Petroleum, Mr. Emmanuel Armah Kofi Buah, has charged the management of Adamus Mining Resources, one of the mining companies operating in the Western Region, to observe Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) standards to keep the environment safe.

Mr. Kofi Buah also charged the company to follow all regulations governing their operations, in order not to flout the rules governing environmental protection and mining activities.

The Deputy Minister, who is also the Member of Parliament (MP) for Ellembele, made these remarks when he met with mining communities in his constituency, as part of his tour of the area, to familiarise himself with development projects going on.

According to the young legislator, all the activities of the mining company, directly or indirectly, affects the environment, and what would make their operations safe and accommodating is when they observe the rules of the industry by meeting the standards.

The Deputy Energy Minister further charged the mining company to discharge its duties in the communities in which it operates with due diligence, taking into account local content policy.

According to him, the company should not scare members of the community by demanding qualifications that are not attainable in the area, which could make their engagement with the unemployed youth in the area cumbersome.

He said instead of demanding for higher qualifications from the communities, the mining company should rather train the youth in the area, and subsequently engage their services for the development of the area in which they operate.

He said the demand for certain skills in the area was a major challenge confronting the people, especially in communities where there was mass illiteracy.

"Many of our people are not trained, unskilled and they are equally jobless, but it is up to you to consider them in your operations to reduce the level of unemployment in the area," he advised.

On the part of the government, he said, "We will do our best. We are engaging many of the unemployed youth, but government alone can't do it. It will take private companies like Adamus to share the burden," he asserted.

According to Kofi Buah, while the government was dealing with the mass unemployment situation in the country, private companies must also be in the position to support the Better Ghana agenda of it by creating jobs for the people.

The MP, who was accompanied by his constituency executives, also visited communities such as Ekwei, Salma and Akropong among others, to interact with the inhabitants.