Ghana: Bauxite Sector Deserted -Third World Network (TWN)

Bauxite, though contributes about one percent of the total mineral export receipts for the country, has the potential of becoming Ghana's second most important mineral after gold.

For this reason, the Third World Network-Ghana (TWN) in October, 2010 commissioned a study to examine the socio-economic and environmental impact of bauxite mining in the country.

The key objectives of the study were to highlight draw attention to the potential contribution of bulk minerals to the socio-economic development of Ghana, determine their economic contribution as well as social and environmental impacts of mining activities within the catchment communities of the Ghana Bauxite Company (GBC).

Others objectives were to identify the real and potential contribution of the bauxite sector to the economy of Ghana in terms of employment figures, technology transfer, government revenue and overall Gross Domestic Product, forward and backward linkages to other sectors; and to discover gaps, constraints and challenges in the policy and institutional framework governing the sector.

The catchment area of study was the operational areas of the GBC located at Awaso in the Western Region of Ghana. Communities within the catchment area were Awaso, Asempanaye, Atronsu, Subri and Chirano. Speaking at an event in Accra to present the findings of the study, the leader of the research team, Mr Sampson Manukure Atiemo, said the methodology used for the research was primary, secondary data collection and sampling comprising of documentary study, survey of annual and technical reports.

In addition was a purposive sampling used to select the communities in the catchment area, focused group discussions with chiefs and opinion leaders and semi-structured interviews conducted for some key stakeholders such as officials of Environmental Protection Agency and management of the GBC.

According to Mr Atiemo, the findings disclosed that the GBC has not paid dividends to the government since 2003, thus not contributing to the national economy.

Also, rail haulage of bauxite has drastically reduced from about 85% in 2000 to about 21% in 2008 while road haulage increased from 15% to about 79% within the same period.

The increased road haulage has resulted in the development of potholes in the Awaso-Kumasi highway, and increased road traffic accidents involving the haulage trucks.

On socio-economic impacts, he said there is general dissatisfaction among the chiefs and people in communities within the catchment area of the company.

Provision of some social infrastructure has been done on cost sharing basis whereas in reality the communities have been denied some livelihood opportunities such as water and farm lands.

He added: payment of royalties to communities within the catchment area has not been forthright- apart from Awaso, none of the communities were aware of payment of mining royalties.

An aggregate of all the elements showed that the River Awa contain the most polluted sediment while River Subri is polluted mainly from legacy mining since the old Kanayerebo mine was located near the river. The analysis of water quality also indicated very high pollution of the rivers.