{"id":4616,"date":"2019-11-01T15:19:08","date_gmt":"2019-11-01T15:19:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.atewa.org\/?p=4616"},"modified":"2020-09-11T17:01:52","modified_gmt":"2020-09-11T17:01:52","slug":"mining-atewas-bauxite-may-bring-in-millions-but-it-could-also-taint-water-for-5-million-people","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.atewa.org\/index.php\/2019\/11\/01\/mining-atewas-bauxite-may-bring-in-millions-but-it-could-also-taint-water-for-5-million-people\/","title":{"rendered":"Mining Atewa\u2019s Bauxite May Bring In Millions But It Could Also Taint Water For 5 Million People"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Forest wardens walk into the Atewa Forest Reserve in Ghana, where millions of tons of bauxite could be mined. (Cristina Aldehuela\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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\nBelow the towering mahogany trees that blanket this lush mountainside, hidden beneath the brown-red soil, lie millions of tons of very valuable rock.\n<\/p>\n

\nThis world-renowned forest reserve, called the Atewa, is the source of three major rivers that provide water to 5 million people. It is also home to an estimated 165 million tons of bauxite, a sedimentary rock used to create aluminum products such as aircraft parts, kitchen utensils and beer cans.\n<\/p>\n

\nGhana\u2019s leaders want to mine the bauxite, which they see as the country\u2019s ticket to economic growth, thanks to a big-name partner \u2014 China. Campaigners and water experts say the environmental cost is too high: Mining would taint the water, they claim.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cWhen you take the mountain off, you change the hydrology and ecology,\u201d said Ronald Abrahams, a chief officer of the Water Resources Commission, the government agency tasked with managing the use of Ghana\u2019s water resources. \u201cIt will not be the same. It will change everything, and we won\u2019t have a source of a river which is so reliable and has served this nation for ages.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\nGhana is looking to mine bauxite to uphold what it calls a barter deal with China\u2019s Sinohydro Corp. Limited. Sinohydro delivers $2 billion worth of infrastructure projects across the country, which Ghana would pay back with proceeds from the sale of the refined bauxite. (The Ghanaian government\u2019s plans include building a refinery to process the raw bauxite.)<\/p>\n

\nChina is the top buyer of minerals and rocks from Africa, pouring tens of billions of dollars into mining across the continent over the past decade \u2014 an investment that has fueled the country\u2019s reign as the world\u2019s largest aluminum producer.<\/p>\n

\nThe Asian powerhouse is also Africa\u2019s biggest funder of infrastructure projects. It has pledged reams of cash for roads, bridges, power plants and oil refineries.\n<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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A man walks past an abandoned bauxite shed containing samples extracted by a mining company from the Kyebi Forest Reserve to analyze the quality of its soil. (Cristina Aldehuela\/AFP\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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A sample box of bauxite from the Atewa Forest Reserve. (Cristina Aldehuela\/AFP\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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\nThese buyer and funder identities often intersect as China offers big-ticket loans in exchange for access to lucrative resources in Ghana, Guinea, the Congo and beyond. But analysts say the high-profile deals, touted by both Chinese and African officials as a shared path to prosperity, rarely lift the continent\u2019s poorest residents and can harm the environment.\nNeither the Chinese government, through its embassy in the Ghanaian capital, Accra, nor Sinohydro, which is a state-owned corporation, responded to requests for comment.\n<\/p>\n

\nMuch is unknown about the government\u2019s mining plans in the Atewa, a 90-square-mile tract of mountainous forestland. The three major rivers that originate there \u2014 the Densu, Birim and Ayensu \u2014 provide drinking water to three regions of Ghana, including to the 1 million people in Accra.\n<\/p>\n

\nBauxite typically is found in the topsoil and extracted through strip mining, which requires removing layers of soil and rock to access the minerals below. Elsewhere, bauxite mining has had devastating consequences. A 2018 Human Rights Watch report on bauxite mining in Guinea found that the country\u2019s dozens of open-pit operations had destroyed farmlands, damaged water sources, and coated homes and crops in dust.<\/P>\n

\nEnvironmental campaigners warn that if mining in the Atewa begins, runoff from the operations would contaminate the three rivers and smaller streams and would pollute surrounding areas with bauxite dust. Ultimately, they fear the evergreen forest \u2014 with its waterfalls and rare butterflies, frogs and monkeys \u2014 will disappear.<\/P>\n

\nTheir worries were reinforced in March when the U.S. Forest Service visited the Atewa to provide technical consultation to Ghana\u2019s government. Its report said mining could lead to a \u201cpotential significant and permanent impact\u201d on the forest reserve and its importance as a water source.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cIf the forest is gone, it means the rainfall pattern will change, and that means our livelihoods will change,\u201d said Emmanuel Tabi, a local assembly representative for the area. His constituents live near the forest and rely on it for water for use at home and on their farms.\n\n<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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People enjoy the waterfalls inside the Atewa Forest Reserve in the East Akim Municipal District in Eastern Region, Ghana. (Cristina Aldehuela\/AFP\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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\nThe U.S. report also pointed to what campaigners and those living in the communities surrounding the forest have complained of \u2014 a lack of transparency in the plans and how the impacts will be addressed.\n<\/p>\n

\nAbrahams, of the Water Resources Commission, said government representatives reassured him they were listening to concerns about the environmental impact at a workshop on bauxite mining and aluminum development this month. He hoped this meant the plans would be dropped.\n<\/p>\n

\nBut in public comments, Ghana\u2019s leaders seem resolute on mining the forest. Lands and Natural Resources Minister Kwaku Asomah-Cheremeh said in September that pilot exercises had shown the forest and water bodies would not be destroyed.\n

\nHe was echoing comments made by Ghanaian President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, who dismissed claims that mining in the Atewa would threaten the creatures of the forest.\n<\/p>\n

\n\u201cI am satisfied by what I have been told and what has been demonstrated to me that it is possible for us to get that red mud out without disturbing the wildlife that there is in the Atewa mountains,\u201d he said at a sustainable development conference in May.<\/p>\n

\nThe government agency responsible for carrying out the plans, the Ghana Integrated Aluminum Development Corporation, did not comment for this story despite multiple requests.<\/p>\n

\nA robust opposition to the plan has formed. Ghanaian environmental activists and organizations walked for six days from Atewa to Accra in March 2018, carrying water from the forest. They have erected billboards and placed a notice in Ghana\u2019s national newspaper in an attempt to dissuade mining companies from bidding for bauxite mining concessions. A collection of Ghanaian civil society organizations is now considering filing a class-action suit to protect the forest from mining.<\/p>\n

\nKyebi, a community bordering the forest reserve, figured prominently in the last big fight over mining, in 2017. Ghana has long been known for its gold mining, but illegal small-scale mining so polluted bodies of water throughout Ghana that experts warned the country may have to import its water by 2020. A nationwide campaign followed, along with a temporary ban on all small mining operations.<\/p>\n

\nOne of the most outspoken critics of illegal mines? Akufo-Addo, the president.<\/p>\n

\nSome residents of nearby towns say a mine would bring jobs to the area, and with jobs would come workers buying goods and services, like 41-year-old Ama Gifty Asare\u2019s roadside breakfast food in the town of Odumase.\n\u201cI don\u2019t have a problem with it, for employment\u2019s sake,\u201d Asare said. \u201cI will get to trade more.\u201d\nMany others say they don\u2019t like the plans.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cFive million people use that water. It passed from village to village and town to town,\u201d said Mohammed Awudu, a 52-year-old farmer whose house in Kyebi is a short walk from one of the rivers flowing from the Atewa. \u201cMost in the community can\u2019t say anything about it. Most of us don\u2019t like it, but we can\u2019t say anything because we don\u2019t have power.\u201d\nAn environmental group called A Rocha Ghana has been leading the fight against the government\u2019s plans, working to amplify voices like Awudu\u2019s.

\n\nOn the lawn of the organization\u2019s outpost in Kyebi is a reddish-brown boulder of bauxite, a reminder of what campaigners want the government to keep in the ground. A poster of Akufo-Addo lines one of the walls inside the office, his face next to a quote from his 2017 inauguration speech:<\/p>\n

\n\u201cWe should all recognize the danger we face by the alarming degradation of our environment and work to protect our water bodies, our forests, our lands, and the oceans.\u201d<\/p>\n\n<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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A view inside the Atewa Forest Reserve in the East Akim Municipal District in Eastern Region, Ghana. (Cristina Aldehuela\/AFP\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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\nSource: <\/strong>Washington Post\n<\/p>\n

\nFind original link Here<\/a>\n<\/p><\/strong>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Forest wardens walk into the Atewa Forest Reserve in Ghana, where millions of tons of bauxite could be mined. (Cristina Aldehuela\/AFP\/Getty Images Below the towering mahogany trees that blanket this lush mountainside, hidden beneath the brown-red soil, lie millions of tons of very valuable rock. This world-renowned forest reserve, called […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":4562,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"give_campaign_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4616","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"rttpg_featured_image_url":{"full":["https:\/\/www.atewa.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/WP6.jpg",1440,961,false],"landscape":["https:\/\/www.atewa.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/WP6.jpg",1440,961,false],"portraits":["https:\/\/www.atewa.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/WP6.jpg",1440,961,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.atewa.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/WP6-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/www.atewa.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/WP6-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"large":["https:\/\/www.atewa.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/WP6-1024x683.jpg",1024,683,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/www.atewa.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/WP6.jpg",1440,961,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/www.atewa.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/WP6.jpg",1440,961,false],"swmsc-related-posts":["https:\/\/www.atewa.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/WP6-500x344.jpg",500,344,true],"swmsc-recent-post-tiny":["https:\/\/www.atewa.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/WP6-90x90.jpg",90,90,true],"swmsc-grid-image":["https:\/\/www.atewa.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/WP6-670x460.jpg",670,460,true],"swmsc-square-image":["https:\/\/www.atewa.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/WP6-670x670.jpg",670,670,true],"swmsc-blog-featured":["https:\/\/www.atewa.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/WP6-850x520.jpg",850,520,true],"ecoworld-blog-featured":["https:\/\/www.atewa.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/WP6-850x520.jpg",850,520,true],"ecoworld-blog-full":["https:\/\/www.atewa.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/WP6-1200x520.jpg",1200,520,true],"ecoworld-related-posts":["https:\/\/www.atewa.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/WP6-500x344.jpg",500,344,true],"ecoworld-recent-post-tiny":["https:\/\/www.atewa.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/WP6-90x90.jpg",90,90,true],"ecoworld-grid-image":["https:\/\/www.atewa.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/WP6-670x460.jpg",670,460,true],"ecoworld-standard":["https:\/\/www.atewa.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/WP6-670x961.jpg",670,961,true],"ecoworld-square-image":["https:\/\/www.atewa.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/WP6-670x670.jpg",670,670,true]},"rttpg_author":{"display_name":"Admin2","author_link":"https:\/\/www.atewa.org\/index.php\/author\/admin2\/"},"rttpg_comment":0,"rttpg_category":"News<\/a>","rttpg_excerpt":"Forest wardens walk into the Atewa Forest Reserve in Ghana, where millions of tons of bauxite could be mined. (Cristina Aldehuela\/AFP\/Getty Images Below the towering mahogany trees that blanket this lush mountainside, hidden beneath the brown-red soil, lie millions of tons of very valuable rock. This world-renowned forest reserve, called […]","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.atewa.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4616","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.atewa.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.atewa.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.atewa.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.atewa.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4616"}],"version-history":[{"count":24,"href":"https:\/\/www.atewa.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4616\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4648,"href":"https:\/\/www.atewa.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4616\/revisions\/4648"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.atewa.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4562"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.atewa.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4616"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.atewa.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4616"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.atewa.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4616"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}