Afronline – The Voice Of Africa

A foreign mining company has polluted the environment so much that the local people have no access to safe and adequate water. And that is not the only mining company killing people in Ghana. The government looks on.

In December last year a group of women in Dumase, a community near Bogoso in the Western Regionof Ghana, blocked the road leading to the site of the mining company operating in the area, Golden Star Resources, to protest the pollution of their only source of water. The police were called in but the women refused to move. They did not leave until officials from the District Assembly came to assure them that their water tanks, which had run out of water for days, would be filled. Months on, the villagers insist they can no longer drink from their streams. As mining continues in the area with assurances that the residents would be relocated.

For many years the people of Dumase have lived peacefully. They have depended on their environment for survival and lived on subsistence agriculture. The main sources of water for domestic use have been streams and smaller water bodies. The Dumase township has long held spiritual and emotional attachments to these water bodies…some consider them sacred gifts that must be protected.

However, things changed 20 years ago when government granted licenses for large-scale mining in the area which has resulted in the loss of all local water bodies.

The main sources of water for Dumase are the Apepre stream, Beenya, and Wurawura – these are all now polluted by mining spillages.

“All our water is polluted. The water turns yellowish when you boil it,” lamented a resident.

Golden Star Resources, a multi-national mining company with operations in six other countries is the only mining firm in this area. It has been blamed for two major reported cases of cyanide spillages here since 2004. In both cases locals said when they raised alarm Golden Star Resources sought to either play down or deny that there was pollution. But the failure of mining companies to accept full responsibility for spillages is not new.

Organizations working with mining communities say local communities will continue that this denial of mining companies leads to locals continuing to use polluted water, which can result in people contracting some serious and sometimes death-threatening ailments…illness that can be avoided if mining companies were honest and about spillages.

The women of Dumase complain they still see traces of heavy metals from the operations of Golden Star in their streams. In 2004 when the first cyanide spillage was reported, the Environmental Protection Agency, EPA, asked the local people to stay away from their water bodies. Eight years later the company still advises the locals to stay away from these water bodies.

Public Relations Director of Golden Star Resources, Mrs. Ellaine Kwame said it is still unsafe for the people of Dumase to drink water from the streams.

“You cannot have tailings dam sitting by a stream and say that people should go and drink it. …. For the time being it is not possible to have them drink water from this source,” she said.

However she does not admit that it is the activities of the mining company that continue to pollute those water bodies.

While in Dumase I met two women who said they drank water from the Apepre stream in 2006, became sick and have been living on medication ever since.

One of them, Afia Asantewa, used water from the Apepre stream the very morning of the second cyanide spill, and she blames her current condition on the cyanide.

“I have blood pressure. Every month I go to the hospital. If I don’t get to the hospital on time then my head aches badly as if I would die. We didn’t have this kind of ailments until the water got polluted,” she complained.

Shocking research findings

A recent water analysis by the Centre for Environmental Impact Analysis found high levels of heavy metals in the waters at Dumase. By the World Health Organisation’s standards the presence of Arsenic, a toxic chemical, in water should not be more than 0.01 gm/L. But some water bodies have as much as 24 mg/L of arsenic. The researchers say this can cause skin cancer, itchy skin and the black foot disease. And they fear for food crops planted in such conditions.

The research found arsenic levels in cassava in Prestea to be 30.68 milligrams per kilogramme. Compared to WHO standards which are less than 0.003 milligrams per kilogramme, this is far above the level for human consumption. Mining and environmental group, WACAM, also points out that Dumase is part of the nation’s food and fruit basket so the quality and safety of its produce should be of concern to all Ghanaians.

While in the area, some of the concerned women of Dumase take me on a long walk to see the area where Golden Star Resources has its tailing dam, an area the locals call Nankafa. We spend over an hour trekking the long windy farmland to the tailings dam where waste water from the mine is dumped.

From the dam I walk past a security post pretending I’m going to fetch water for my fellow farmers. Less than 20 metres from the security post are traces of seepages from the dam flowing right into the stream. Water seeping through the tailings dam into the Apepre stream is visibly different. The women farm in this area and they see this seepage regularly. They accuse Golden Star of polluting their water without making any effort to stop it. Instead the company tells them to stay away from their water bodies, without providing them with adequate alternatives.

“When will this company stop polluting our water?” one of them asked.

By Benjamin Tetteh – Pambazuka.org

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