Nearly Eight Months After He Was Admitted to The37th Military Hospital in Accra with Gunshot

FINANCING MISERY

The story of the World Bank and AngloGold Ashanti Iduapriem Limited

By Mike Anane

Nearly eight months after he was airlifted with gunshot wounds from the Effie Nkwanta hospital in the western region of Ghana to a hospital in Accra, the country’s capital, Anthony Baidoo, a 45-year-old farmer, is going home to Teberebie.

“I am very happy and grateful to God that I am still alive and being discharged from the hospital today, Oct. 13, 2006, I will never forget this date. I can now go home and see my family.” Anthony said with a smile.

He was, however, quick to blame AngloGold Ashanti Iduapriem Limited, which runs a 110 sq. kilometer open pit heap leach gold mine close to his village for his predicament. The gold mine was supported by the World Bank’s private sector lending arm, the International Finance Corporation.

Recounting events that led to the shooting incident, Anthony explained that almost all the footpaths and other routes that he and the other farmers at Teberebie had been using since time immemorial to get to their farms had been rendered impassable by mounting heaps of waste rock dumped all over their community over the years by the AngloGold Ashanti mine.

So, at about 8 a.m. on the 2nd of February 2006, he and about 150 farmers from the Teberebie community attempted to use an alternative road provided by AngloGold to their farms, as they had been doing for the past year. But to their amazement they were prevented by officials of the company and guards from Sec Point, a private security firm hired by AngloGold Ashanti.

According to Anthony, the mine officials told the farmers that they could no longer use that route to their farms, and that the services of the company’s bus, which had been conveying them on that route to a point closer to their farms, had also been terminated.

Shocked at the company’s decision, Anthony said the farmers questioned when the company arrived at that decision, why the communities were not consulted or involved in the decision-making process and why the company did not inform them of this development earlier on. But the officials would not answer their questions.

They then pleaded to be allowed to use the usual route instead of the new route that the company was proposing since it will be difficult walking the almost 10 kilometers to their farms on the new route with their farming implements; and walking the same distance back with their farm produce.

But the company officials and the private security operatives steadfastly refused to heed to their plea and this resulted in an argument. Some armed soldiers and policemen who had been d deployed in the area were then called in by the company officials.

“I was not even part of those who were protesting at the company’s attitude. I was standing not far from them though. But suddenly there was a gunshot and I felt a sharp pain in my buttocks and my abdomen and I fell to the ground.”

According to Anthony, after writhing in pain in a pool of blood for almost two hours, Nana Emil, a resident of Teberebie and some women came to his aid and he was rushed to the company’s Clinic for first aid together with four others, who sustained less serious injuries from the gunshots.

Hard Life Back in Teberebie

This writer visited Teberebie, some 450 kilometers from Accra, two weeks after Anthony’s discharge. A worried Anthony leaned on crutches, lamented how difficult life had become.

“For the past two weeks since I was discharged and came home, I have had to rely on friends and my brother in law to give me food, but in this Teberebie village everyone is poor and I cannot

shift this burden to my friends and brother in law. But now I cannot walk the 10 kilometer distance to my farm to work. I am still in pain, I still use clutches, I can’t do any strenuous work, I just don’t have the strength and that means I don’t have any money to buy food and look after my children,” he lamented.

He told this writer that it has also been hard for him to use the village toilet that he was using before the gunshot wound.

“The public toilet in the village here is basically a hole in the ground and now it’s difficult for me to squat on the hole as we always do here. Two members of my family have to carry me to the public toilet each time I want to attend to nature’s call. They then have to put their arms under my shoulders and lift me up so I can ease myself into the hole and this happens each time I have to use the toilet since I came back to my village,” he said.

“I feel so bad having to rely on them for food and also to carry me to the toilet. But I am helpless. The other day I tried to walk to the toilet here all alone but I fell and passed out,” he recalled.

Anthony told this writer that before he was shot by the soldiers he had no problem with food. “Each time I returned from my farm I brought home enough food that will feed me three times a day.”

“But look at me now, I haven’t been able to go to my farm and I haven’t also been able to use the toilet all by myself and it looks like this will be the case for a long time to come. I am indeed a worried man because I have suddenly become poor and physically challenged and dependent on others,” he lamented.

Robert Assuah, Anthony’s brother in law, corroborated all that Anthony had said. “We always have to be around him to assist him, this means that we don’t have to go to our farms and how do we eat if we don’t go to our farms. Besides I am also old and not so strong so I cannot continue to carry him to the toilet each time. Please tell the management of the company who brought the soldiers to this village to shoot Anthony that they should construct a toilet here for his use. If it is elevated from the ground he can sit on it and wouldn’t have to squat as we do on the holes in the ground here because in his present state he just cant squat, he has pains all over his lower abdomen because of the gunshot wound which is still healing, he had tried using a chamber pot but we still have to hold him otherwise he falls off.”

Robert further stated that Anthony needed money to buy food and other necessities since he cannot go to the farm. “It’s really getting difficult for us now since he was discharged. All the burden is now on us but we just don’t have the means to continue taking care of his needs. We have complained to the officials of Anglogold Ashanti, but we haven’t heard from them,” he said.

Villages Suffer Variety of Consequences From Mine Operations

Most of the inhabitants of Teberebie, Wangarakrom, Badukrom , Abompuniso, Tekyiman, Mile 8, Adisakrom, Nkwanta and Mile 7 all within the operational area of Anglogold Ashanti mine who were interviewed by this writer also expressed joy at Anthony’s return to the village of about 800 people. But they were however quick to add that there wasn’t much to celebrate because Anglogold Ashanti learned nothing from this mishap.

“Nothing has changed for the better here, we thought that the management of Anglogold Ashanti, will learn a lesson from the shooting incident and turn over a new leaf and put in place proper measures to find long lasting solutions to the concerns of the project affected communities but the problems here are even getting worse” Emelia Amoateng Boateng of Teberebie told this writer.

According to Emelia, the Teberebie village and other communities fringing the company’s operational area are still saddled with human rights violations and environmental problems as a result of the mining operations and this had set in motion increasing impoverishment and social decline which is making their communities uninhabitable.

She said that lands previously used for farming and those that could be so used have now been swallowed up by waste rock dumps.

As a result, farmers who mostly practice traditional and subsistence agriculture are displaced from their land on which they farm, leading to loss of livelihoods, she said. Consequently, food production has decreased considerably, creating the conditions for increased food prices.

“By driving people off their land with no replacement land, Anglogold Ashanti has exacerbated our poverty. Securing replacement land is a major problem for the farmers here and till date some of them remain without sustainable source of livelihood,” she said.

“Some farmers from Teberebie now have to walk almost 9 kilometers to Agege and other villages around to beg for land for farming because all the land at Teberebie have been turned into dumpsites for waste rock from the mine pits of Anglogold Ashanti mine,” Emelia said.

Other residents of Teberebie also spoke of the enormous mounds of waste rock, reaching to with heights of between 50 to 100 meters, obliterating the surrounding landscape and taking up their farm lands. The waste rock comes too close to their homes for comfort and dust that blows off the heaps of waste rock into their homes.

According the local residents, the proximity of the waste rock dumps to their homes has compelled them to use long and winding footpaths “even when wherever you are going is just close by.”

Water Problems; No Test Results Provided

Residents also disclosed that runoff from the waste rock dumps is leading to toxic contamination of groundwater and surface water as well as to the loss of critical natural ecosystems and biodiversity. The rivers and streams in the area are also gone, along with the fish. Most communities in the area were experiencing food shortages due to the near absence of opportunities to make up for food deficits through replacement lands, hunting or fishing.

“We have persistently complained to the company about the waste rock dumps, yet they continue to grow in size, number and height,” said Nana Emil, a farmer in Teberebie.

The residents also pointed out that the loss of free access to local water resources was also a major concern.

”As I speak now there isn’t a drop of water in the Teberebie village, all our streams are no more, thanks to the mining company. All the three boreholes that the company provided for the over 700 inhabitants here have also broken down. In fact for a long time we relied on just one borehole for our water needs but just three weeks ago it also broke down, we have told the officials at Anglogold Ashanti mine about this problem but it’s the usual `we have heard’ and that is it. Now all of us here have to walk several kilometers in search of water, others have no choice but to look for money to buy bottled or satchet water such as Voltic, Nsu and Dasani, just as you do in Accra. For how long can we go on like this we just don’t have the money to continue buying mineral water but we are thirsty,” Emelia chipped in.

Views of Teberebie Chief Nana Kodjo Minnah

“We used to have streams in this area but enormous amounts of run-off, sediments and toxic waste from the waste rock dumps and tailings from the company’s open pit mining operations have killed all the streams in the area, in fact other streams were deliberately filled with rubble by the company,” said Nana Kodjo Minnah, Chief of Teberebie.

The chief and his linguist, Kwabena Ahuradwo, told this writer that almost all the streams and rivers in the area including Anikawkaw, Awhiafutu, Drobo, Attsofoe, Atibri, and Awwra have long become cesspools of mine waste.

Nana Kodjo Minnah disclosed that the company takes samples of water from some streams, wells and boreholes in the in the area for laboratory analysis “but they don’t tell any one about the results of the tests. But I once told them that they were doing us a lot of harm by not telling us about the results of their tests. It is very important that we know about the results of tests conducted on water samples from these wells, boreholes and streams in our villages.”

Loss of Farm Land Threatens Food Supply

According to Nana Kodjo Minnah, local communities who depended on subsistence farming are now bereft of land in their communities.

“Land replacement is critical to restoring the livelihoods of the displaced farmers but nobody knows whether the company will give the farmers land, the situation poses immense and immediate threat to food security in the area,” he declared

Nana Kodjo Minnah also stated that the immediate restoration of lands and livelihoods for displaced farmers and the provision of clean water for the communities affected by the Anglogold Ashanti should also be an immediate concern of the International Finance Corporation.

“They are the ones financing Anglogold Ashanti and they need to be concerned. They have to put in place measures to protect and improve the sustainable access to safe water of the affected communities, this is urgent, he explained.

Nana Kodjo Minnah further disclosed that local community consultation, participation and involvement in decision-making processes were poor. “Each time we complain the officials of Anglogold Ashanti tell us we have heard and that is all. They have formed the community consultative committee about a year ago. but the problems created by the company in the communities are still there and getting worse,” Nana said.

Blasting Causing Wall Damage

One long-running battle between the communities and Anglogold Ashanti has centered chiefly over the intensity of blasting by the company and the cracks that are tearing buildings in the communities apart.

“As for the cracks in our buildings I will be glad if you could go and see them for yourself so that you appreciate better what we are going through here. Please get up and let me go and show you the cracks in the buildings, seeing is believing,” Nana Kodjo Minnah said to this writer.