Zanlerigu residents at risk of being displaced by mining activities
Residents of Zanlerigu, a farming community in the Nabdam District of the Upper East Region, are at risk of being displaced and evicted from their homes over gold mining activities in the area.
Humanitarian crisis, loss of farmlands, educational and health facilities and livelihoods of people could soon hit the community if Cardinal Resources Ghana Limited is allowed to carry out any form of mining activities in the area.
In 2017, the Cardinal Resources Ghana Limited started prospecting activities in the Zanlerigu community without prior notice to the leadership of the community and was eventually sacked by the community members after almost a month of exploration.
The Ghana News Agency gathered that the activities led to the breakdown of a borehole and pollution of water bodies in the area, which compelled residents to travel far distances to access potable water.
In February 2023, the mining company returned to the community but at a different location from the first and started prospecting again.
The community is currently at loggerheads with the mining company and resisting any attempt by the company to engage in any prospecting or mining activities in the area.
Mr Maxwell Devom, the Assembly man for the Zanlerigu-Daliga Electoral Area, said the mining company did not engage the community to inform it of its intention before entering to prospect for Gold.
Zanlerigu is a compact community with nucleated settlement and the population of more than 5,000, predominantly engaged in farming as the main source of livelihood and where the intended mining activities were to take place was in the middle of the community, he said.
“When they came and started working, we could not sleep because of the noise from their machines, they broke our borehole and the leadership of the community worked to fix it but even now the water does not flow properly and a lot of people experienced respiratory problems as children were coughing daily.
“We are not against mining in general, but mining cannot be allowed to take place in the middle of the community which has lots of environmental implication on farmlands, health among others. It is about our survival here; it will be better to live in poverty than to die early,” he said.
Mr Dominic Zuure, Chairman of the Zanlerigu Development Committee noted that although the community was later told by the mining company that there would be compensation, resettlement, jobs and local content if it finds gold and want to venture into mining, the future of the community would be destroyed should they agree to those terms.
At a meeting with the Minerals Commission and the Nabdam District Assembly, the community members reiterated their position not to allow any mining activities in the area, stating that, “we know government owns all mineral resources in trust of the people, but it is not also lawful for mining to take place in places where people live.”
Dr Iliasu Adam, the Principal Community Stakeholder Relations of the Minerals Commission in charge of the five regions of the North, noted that Cardinal Resources Ghana Limited had only prospecting license but not mining license.
He said the law did not allow prospection to take place in the middle of communities where people live and urged the community to engage the mining company to find an amicable solution to the disagreement.
Mrs Agnes Anamoo, the District Chief Executive for the area, noted that although the Assembly was in support of any development initiative in the district, it would not support mining activities that would pose danger to the livelihood of the people.
Source: GNA