Close Down Operations - EPA Orders Bogoso Gold

Close Down Operations - EPA Orders Bogoso Gold

E. Kojo Kwarteng, Graphic Ghana

29th September 2005

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has ordered Bogoso Gold Limited (BGL), a mining company operating in Prestea in the Wassa West District of the Western Region, to stop operations with immediate effect.

The order follows the violation of the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) procedures and regulations by BGL, a Canadian firm.

The EIA process helps to assess plans to mitigate any adverse impacts resulting from a proposed activity.

Depending on the nature, scope and importance of the project or proposal, the assessment may cover the ecological, economic, cultural, aesthetic, health, safety, social and amenity impacts, with regard to decisions on the sustainable management of natural and physical resources.

The Executive Director of the EPA, Mr Jonathan Allotey, who confirmed this in an interview with the Graphic yesterday, said "the company is not living up to its own commitment".

He said the order was issued about three weeks ago after experts from the agency visited Prestea and assessed complaints about the operations of BGL.

Mr Allotey explained that the order had restricted the operations of the company to certain areas but did not give further details.

He said BGL had been directed to provide environmental mitigation plans for scrutiny.

The Executive Director said BGL would have to furnish the EPA with an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) spelling out details of how it could contain disasters and problems arising from its operations.

Mr Allotey said officials of the EPA and the Parliamentary Select Committee on Environment and Science, were currently on the ground assessing the situation adding that further action would be announced based on information that would be provided by the experts.

The act which established the EPA empowers the Agency to issue a notice, requiring any person responsible for any undertaking which in the opinion of the Agency, has or is likely to have adverse effect on the environment, to submit to it, in respect of the undertaking, an EIS containing such information within a specified period or halt operations.

An EPA source at Tarkwa/Prestea said until the company produced an EIS stating how it would minimise environmental problems in its catchment area, it would not be allowed to operate.

It told the Graphic that the company had, as of Wednesday morning, complied with the order.

The activities of BGL have come under attack from the residents of Prestea, Himan and Dumase and environmental non-governmental organisations, including the Wassa Association of Communities Affected by Mining (WACAM), fearing that BGL was rendering the entire place and its environs ghost settlements.

Its operations have systematically destroyed important social amenities such as a police station, bungalows, the only filling station in the area, portions of the Prestea Government Hospital and sources of drinking water, as well as buildings and electrical gadgets of residents.

The secretary of the Concerned Citizens of Prestea, Mr Kwesi Blay, told the Graphic in a telephone interview that given the rate of excavation by the mining company, it would soon bring down the only hospital serving about 70,000 people in the area.

A recent tour of Prestea and its surrounding communities revealed that the Staff Club House, which is about five metres away from a bungalow occupied by the accountant of the hospital, had been covered with sand, while other bungalows faced imminent colapse.

The heavy impact of the blasting by BGL had caused cracks in buildings in the area with residents having difficulty in sleeping at night when the company carried out blasting activities.

The Volta River Authority (VRA) sub- station in the area is also under threat.

A spring which serves as a source of drinking water for the people has been covered with mine waste which contains heavy metals.

Members of the Concerned Citizens Association have, for the past two weeks, been demonstrating and carrying placards calling on the authorities to bring BGL to order.

At a meeting with the Parliamentary Select Committee on Environment and Science, which is currently touring the Western Region, on Tuesday, representatives of the communities called for the operations of BGL to be halted otherwise the Prestea town should be relocated because of the environmental problems.