Residents want mining firm to stop operations

Residents of Akyem Kwabeng in the Atiwa District have urged Xtra-Gold Mining Company to stop its operations in the area to save their already polluted water bodies from further pollution.

Mr. Oteng Agyei, assembly member for Wintinase, gave the order when he addressed a press conference at Kwabeng in the Atiwa District on Monday.

He said the company had failed to comply with the social responsibility agreement signed with the community in respect of providing them with portable water after contaminating their water bodies.

Mr Agyei said the community had agitated about the activities of the company for far too long and the only solution left to them now was to ask them to leave the area.

“In this regard, Xtra –Gold mining is being informed that the Kwabeng community is fed up with its intransigence and feet dragging coupled with scorn and contempt it has subjected the community to and therefore its operation on Kwabeng soil should cease forthwith” he said.

Mr Agyei said the company, through the negligence of one of its drivers, had caused considerable damage to the bridge spanning River Awusu which links Kwabeng to Akyem Akropong and beyond but had persistently refused calls to rehabilitate it.

He refuted a newspaper publication alleging that some assembly members were in ‘bed’ with the company hence their inability to sack them from the area.

Mr Agyei told journalists that the company owed affected farmers in the area GHC 300, 000.00 out of which only GHC60,000.00 had been paid.

He said the community would “wage war” against any mining company in the area found to have destroyed their water bodies and farms.

Source: GNA