Concerned farmers of Adansi and Amansie petition government

Kumasi, May 21, GNA - Concerned farmers of Adansi and Amansie communities in Ashanti, whose activities have been affected by the operations of AngloGold Ashanti (Obuasi Mine), have called on the government to initiate an urgent amendment to the current Minerals and Mining Act passed in 2006.

They claimed that the law as it stood did not address the needs of poor and marginalised communities, but rather was a promotional document for mining companies operating in the country. The farmers also called on the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to release the report on its investigations into the pollution of River Fena as quickly as possible as "they smell something fishy". This was in a press statement signed by Mr Anthony Ekyem, spokesperson for the farmers and issued in Kumasi. The call comes in the wake of the mass pollution of major river bodies in those communities as a result of surface mining by AngloGold. "Rivers, which hitherto were used in washing, farming, cooking, recreation and religious purposes, had all gone bad due to unhealthy surface mining resulting in poverty among the farmers." The group recalled with pain the pollution of River Fena, with mine waste and poisonous chemicals like cyanide, saying "this singular act of wickedness on the part of the company" had rendered the river "almost useless" for domestic and other purposes. River Fena is a major river body used by almost all the communities in the Amansie area in 1998.

The farmers said they found this hypocritical since for the past 20 years the company had refused to provide basic amenities to the communities, while they continued to spend several dollars in the form of donation to others outside their concessional area. It appealed to the government to endeavour to come to their aid to ensure that AngloGold lived up to expectation as earlier dialogues between them, (Wassa Communities Affected by Mining (WACAM) and the company fell on the rocks.