BY EDMUND SMITH-ASANTE, BACK FROM OUAGADOUGOU
Despite many livelihood improvement projects embarked on by the mine for the indigenes, some are still expressing dissatisfaction because they no longer have farms from which they can feed their families and earn a living.
The Bissa Gold SA mine in Burkina Faso had not begun
operations yet when a group of environmental journalists from 11 West African
countries visited in 2012.
However, two major communities – Bissa and Sabce, 90
km from Ouagadougou, which have been displaced by the mine and so have been
relocated, were already expressing some misgivings and dissatisfaction.
Their misgivings were on the change in their
cultural setting in view of the way the resettlement buildings have been put up
and also the taking away of their main livelihood, which is farming.
Despite many livelihood improvement projects embarked on by the mine for the indigenes, some are still expressing dissatisfaction because they no longer have farms from which they can feed their families and earn a living.
The indigenes also see the buildings put up for them
as very inconvenient because they have very little space and also do not have
the traditional and cultural settings they have been used to for many decades.
For now, Bissa Gold SA has put up 350 housing units
for 1,250 households in both Bissa and Sabce.
Speaking on behalf of the communities at a forum
with the international group of journalists from West Africa who had paid a
visit to see at first hand their challenges as a result of the mine, Ouedraogo
Tiwodo, the Chief of Nyagale, said although they knew the prospecting was only
meant for few years and so were comfortable with the presence of the miners,
they had to go into consultation with them when they found gold and decided to
mine. He said little did they know however, that they were going to be
relocated for them to mine.
Later in an exclusive interview, during which the chief
disclosed how the relocation had impacted on their lives, he intimated; “When a
man lives with a woman, anytime you want to meet with your wife everyone is
aware of it,” referring to the fact that although in their former community the
man had a separate dwelling from the woman, they now have to live together in
the same building at the new settlement, which is culturally unacceptable.
He stated further; “I had 55 hectares of farmland but
they took it from me. I asked for a farmland from acquaintances in other
villages but they said ‘no, you have sold your piece of land to the mines so we
cannot give you a piece of land to farm.’”
The Chief of Nyagale said it was only his brother who
accepted to give him one hectare of land to farm on and that is what he used
during the recent farming season to grow millet and groundnut. “And this is not
even enough to feed my family,” he exclaimed.
“I have many children and family members so one hectare
is not enough to feed them,” he stressed.
According to the community leader, whereas at first there
was food security, in that there was enough for all family members with surplus
to sell whenever he was hard up, now there is not even enough to go round the
family of 12.
Touching on compensation for the crops that were on his
farm before the land was taken, Ouedraogo Tiwodo explained that for now, he has
only received CFA 7 million for 10 hectares out of the 55, because he has only
been able to produce the papers covering that portion, with a promise that as
soon as he is able to produce the papers covering the remaining 45, he will
likewise be compensated.
The people say they also depended on a reserve for their
fuel wood needs which is now part of the concession allocated by government to
the mining company.
This
article was first published in the February 2013 edition of INFO’ a newsletter
on water and the environment, a publication by GWP/WA and IUCN - PACO
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