Educate us about cyanide - Mining Communities

Abekoase (W/R) Aug. 29, GNA - Communities within mining areas have appealed to mining firms to educated them on the effects of cyanide to prevent chaos in the villages in cases of spillage. Nana Moloba Yamikeh II Chief of Abekoase told Journalists: "We are so ignorant about the issues of cyanide though there had been cases where spillage had occurred and the mines had cleaned-up so quickly as if they had something to hide.

"We need to know the effects of cyanide whether good or bad to enable us take the necessary precaution in case of any spillage in the future, though we do not hope it would happen again," he said. The Chief was interacting with Environmental Journalists from Accra, Takoradi and Koforidua who had accompanied members of the Green Earth Organization for a trip to some communities in the mining areas. The trip was part of capacity-building training programme for the Journalists.

Nana Moloba said the constant spillage had led to the death of all the fishes in the Asumah river adding, "we are afraid to either swim or use the water for any household needs let alone to talk about drinking". Madam Augustina Antwi, Unit Committee Member of the Area, said the two boreholes constructed by Gold Fields Ghana Limited for the villagers were malfunctioning due to poor construction.

"If we do not get up by 0100hours we would not get any water for drinking from the borehole," she said.

Though the mining company was providing water to the communities after the spillage it stopped for no apparent reason, "and now we cannot drink from the polluted river either," she said. Madam Antwi said another problem facing the community was the blasting from the mining firms, which has caused a number of cracks in their building.