Conduct environmental audit at Teberebie

Back page April 16, 2008


Story: Charles Benoni Okine

AN environmental non-governmental organisation (NGO), FoodFirst Information and Action Network (FIAN), has called on the government to conduct an environmental audit of the mining town of Teberebe and its surrounding areas in the Western Region to ascertain the impact of polluted streams and other water bodies on the lives of the people within the community.
The NGO alleged that the streams and water bodes in the area were being heavily polluted with faecal and chemical waste discharges by Anglogold Ashanti, a situation which had made the only source of drinking water for the inhabitants unsafe.
Using a video documentary to buttress his points, Mr Mike Anane, the Co-ordinator of FIAN, told a press conference in Accra yesterday that the mining company was seriously violating the rights of the people in the area and called for an independent investigation into its activities to avoid a clash between the people and the company.
On the issue of waste water, he said the NGO took samples of water for testing at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) where it was confirmed that they were polluted.
Mr Anane produced a report of the analytical report signed by Dr J.A. Ampofo, the Head of the Microbiology, Environmental Biology and Health Division of the CSIR, which read, "The effluents from the pipes at Mile 5 (bungalows) and Mile 6 (bungalows and offices) supplied for analyses are not bacteriologically safe to be discharged into the environment as they are heavily contaminated with pathogenic bacteria and possibly other micro-organisms."
The report further stated, "It is important for these effluents to receive pre-treatment before discharging them into the environment."
"In their current state, they can only be used to irrigate crops, sports fields, public parks and trees but not crops likely to be eaten uncooked. There should not expose these effluents to humans,” the report said.
Present to support the allegations of the NGO were some inhabitants from the mining community and a chief, who also added their voices to the claims of the NGO.
The documentary, which lasted for more than two hours, showed how the community was being degraded by the activities of the company.
There were pictures of pipelines laid from the bungalows of the company in an area called Mile 5/6 which led straight into the tributary of a stream the people depended on.
Interestingly, there were some used condoms being discharged from the pipes.
"FIAN wishes to point out that the discharge of sewerage into the water bodies at Teberebe by Anglogold Ashanti violates the right to water of the communities that rely on the water resources in the area," Mr Anane said.
He also raised the issue of the dumping of waste rock close to the community, which he said generated a lot of dust which covered the few acres of land left for the people for farming, while at the same time creating lung problems for the communities.
Mr Anane said Ghana was a signatory to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, for which reason it should not sit back to allow a mining company of such repute as Anglogold Ashanti to violate the rights of the people.
He said the laws on environmental pollution were explicit and unambiguous and asked that they should be enforced vigorously in the interest of the people.
The chief and some of the inhabitants of the area admitted that the company had provided them with electricity, water and school and had also instituted a micro-credit scheme under which qualified people got GH¢50 to start or expand their businesses.
However, they were very dissatisfied with the manner in which the company treated them with its discharge of waste and called for a more mature way of doing so, adding that they should be compensated for farmlands which were taken away from them.