Need to review existing mining law - Blay

Accra, May 28, GNA - Mr Kwesi Blay, Member of Parliament for Prestea/Huni Valley, has called for a review of the Minerals and Mining Act 703 which has many loopholes that empower mining companies to destroy the environment and those who depend on it for their livelihood. He said when the law was passed, people in the communities, especially those affected by mining activities, were ignorant of its consequences on natural reserves and the environment. Mr Blay made the call at a workshop organized by members of Wassa Association of Communities Affected by Mining (WACAM), an advocacy group in Accra on Thursday.

The workshop organised for NGOs and the media was on the theme "ECOWAS Directive on Harmonization of Guiding Principles and Policies in the Mining Sector".

Mr Blay said "I am not against mining per se, what I am against is irresponsible mining which leaves the environment depleted with dire consequences to humans, plants and animals." He noted that regulatory bodies entrusted with the responsibilities of monitoring practices in the mining sector in particular and the effect of their operations on the environment had not performed creditably well.

"Mining is a curse," he said adding "I am yet to see any type of mining that serves the best interest of the country, the health and socio-economic interest of the affected". He pledged to fight hard in Parliament for a review of the existing mining law.

Mr John Opoku, Executive Director of Centre for Labour Rights and Community Service, an NGO, described the mining law as a new form of colonialism that provided direct foreign investors the authority to "carry the mineral resources in the country to the Western World." He said the existing law provided the leeway for mining companies to exploit and abuse host communities, displaced thousands of people giving way for mining without properly settling them as well as worsening environmental problems in the affected areas. Mr Opoku said there were serious flaws that empowered mining companies to undertake their activities without any regard to the environment as well as creating room for little or no accountability in terms of revenues collected in the mining sector. Speaking on compensation, he said though mining companies were expected to pay compensations for the loss or damage to immovable properties or loss of earnings or sustenance suffered by the landowner, "no mining company has ever paid for the destruction of the land and the soil profile."

Mr Opoku expressed concern about mining companies operating in the country that failed to pay fines imposed on them were left to go free under provisions made in the mining law. He said Ghanaians needed to be vigilant and interested in parliamentary proceedings to avoid a similar incidence from happening as it happened in the case of the mining law. Mr Kwabena Bomfeh, Executive Director of Youth for Action Ghana, an NGO decried that most of the laws that regulated the extractive industry activities in the sub region served the objectives of profit maximization than protecting the sovereign interest of the host nations. He said countries in the sub-region including Ghana, needed strong common policies to promote human rights in mining communities and to ensure transparency and access to information that would guarantee maximum benefits to the country.

Mr Bomfeh called on government to evoke the environmental permit granted Newmont Company, a mining company, from mining in the Ajenua Bepo Forest Reserve in the Eastern Region. The workshop was to brief the media and civil society on the adoption of ECOWAS Directive on the guiding principles and policies in the mining sector.

The ECOWAS Commission initiated a concerted strategy to develop a regional policy on mining based on high standards of accountability for mining companies and governments and was adopted on April 17, 2009. ECOWAS has put in place an action plan, which outlines measures to ensure the adoption of a common mining code in 2012, to ensure fair allocation of mineral income to local communities and to member states to promote sustainable development policy. 28 May 09