Victor Nwegede, Abakaliki.
The Neighbourhood Environment Watch (NEW) Foundation has urged the government to redouble its efforts in addressing the plights of the miners' host communities in Ebonyi State.
The Founder and Executive Director of the NEW Foundation, Dr Kelechukwu Okezie made the call on Wednesday in Abakaliki during the documentary review on mining, environmental and human rights issues in the Enyim Agalegu Community in the Ikwo local government area of Ebonyi State.
Okezie expressed dismay over the environmental degradation and human rights abuses in the mining sites and noted that the evidence of the documentary had shown how Ebonyi people are suffering because of the miners' careless activities in their communities.
"This documentary contains some aspects of activities going on where mining is taking place - the environmental and human rights issues in Enyim Agalegu Ikwo Community. The evidence of the documentary shows that the people are suffering. They are denied the opportunity to reap from the mineral resources given to them by God.
"There are lots of pollutions - one is water pollution, environmental degradation and the documentary stands as evidence to make the government know how to intervene, to address the complaints about marginalisation and human rights abuses in the community - that will help our people, the state and the future generations," he stated.
He recalled that the NEW Foundation had earlier this year invited the miners' host communities to share their experiences with the organisation but wondered why the miners would prefer to impoverish them while extracting mineral deposits from their land.
He further urged the government, other key stakeholders and organisations to assist in addressing the plights of the miners' host communities through sensitization.
"Why is it that the community that has mineral resources will be so much impoverished? Lack of political will, corruption, lack of awareness creation by the community members and some other factors were the causes.
"These should be addressed through sensitization. My call to the government is that it should look into the plights of miners' host communities. Most of them are crying, and they are being exploited. Most of them have no voice. The government should reach out to the miners' host communities and understand their problems.
"No reason is justifiable that the miners' host communities should be worse than the way they met them just because of mineral deposits in their area. The government should show that political will in the mining site," Okezie advised.
In his remarks, the Commissioner for Solid Mineral in Ebonyi State, Hon Chidi Onya affirmed that the the documentary captured some of the challenges being faced by miners' host communities because of the mining activities in their various areas.
The Commissioner assured the affected communities that he would work with operators in the mining sites to ensure their rights remain protected.
"We have started working on some of the operators in the mining sites. The miners were supposed to have the consent of their host communities. We are already enforcing that every miner must have the consent of his or her host community.
"What we hear here is illegal miners. Illegal miners are becoming the chief players in the mining sites. The illegal miners are more prevalent than the legal miners. Whoever is into mining without a genuine paper in Ebonyi State is an illegal miner. Apart from that, some of the challenges have been captured by the NEW Foundation. The documentary is a tip of what is happening in so many places. As I said earlier, the Enyim Agalegu Ikwo Community is fairer than what is happening in other places.
"In some areas, those miners claimed that they were mining their fathers' land and the community didn't get anything from them. Two weeks ago, I closed everything mining at Ameka, because what was happening there remained worrisome - it is an eyesore. I told them that the community development agreement states that even if it's your father's land, the community must benefit from what you are getting from the land."
He therefore promised to work with relevant stakeholders and ministries to ensure total sanity in mining areas in Ebonyi state.
