Registration questionnaire short in Brong Ahafo
Ghana Education Trust Fund Accounts
Tarkwa (Western Region) 06 November 2001- Residents of Akekoase, a farming community of over 200 people in the Wassa West District of the Western Region, have appealed to the government to protect their lands from total destruction by mining.
They said the activities of mining companies in the district were destroying their land and water bodies and taking away their source of livelihood.
They made the call when a team of journalists, at the instance of the Ghana Chamber of Mines, went there to ascertain the cause of the cyanide spillage and subsequent remedial measures taken to restore normalcy.
The residents contended that since the spillage had rendered them vulnerable to diseases, the mining companies should resettle and compensate them adequately.
An Accra private newspaper broke the story on the spillage of cyanide into River Asuman on October 22.
After the publication, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued a statement saying emergency response procedures like the detoxification of cyanide were being implemented and that residents had been cautioned to stay away from the river and its surrounding areas.
Cyanide, a naturally occurring compound, is extremely poisonous. It is a white, crystalline compound with a bitter odour used in extracting gold from low-grade ore, electroplating and casehardening of steel.
It can get into the human body through ingestion or absorbed through the pores on the skin. In the human body, it extracts all oxygen from the lungs, leaving the person short of breath. It can lead to death if ingested in large amounts.
The Chief of Abekoase village, Nana Moloba Nyameke told the journalists that they should be relocated because they were afraid of staying in the area.
He said he personally had to send one person to the hospital after she drank water from the river.
According to him, on the morning of October 16, personnel of the Goldfields Ghana Limited (GGL) came to the village to tell them to refrain from using water from the river since there had been a leakage from a pipe at its leach pad upstream.
Nana Nyameke said the GGL immediately provided them with a water tank, with a promise to provide them a borehole, which they were digging.
He said residents who went to the riverside that morning found dozens of dead fish floating and not knowing the cause some jumped in the river and picked some of the fish.
The chief asked for doctors to be sent there to ascertain the health threat to the people. Nana Nyameke said even if the water was declared safe for consumption, the residents would not drink it.
As at the time journalists left the village, a tanker was supplying water to the villagers and a borehole was being dug for them.
Some of the residents complained about nausea while some had skin rashes believed to have been caused by contact with the contaminated water.
The journalists could not reach the other village, Huniso, affected by the cyanide spillage because of the poor condition of the road. It had been recently graded by GGL and parts of it had become muddy from recent rain.
Meanwhile GGL said the spillage had no effect on public health or long-term damage to the river system. Mr Tim Buchanan, Environmental Manager, said following the discovery of the leakage, residents of both communities- Abekoase and Huniso - were asked to refrain from drinking from the river until water quality sampling could verify that it was safe.
He said the incident was reported to the EPA and water quality sampling on the same day verified that the spillage had no effect on public safety.
Mr Buchanan said the concentrations of cyanide detected in the river had no effect on it and did not alter or damage it, adding that the dead fish in the river were the result of detoxificant applied to the river to neutralise the residual pools of the leakage.
He said the number of dead fish picked up in the river was about 50 which he handed over to the EPA for analysis, but residents claimed they saw about 200 dead fish.
Mr Buchanan said the amount of leakage, about 680 cubic metres or 200 kilogrammes of sodium cyanide, was a small solution spillage, and would have no effect on the life forms in the river and plants around it.
He explained that cyanide degrades in the natural environment extremely quickly to its constituents - carbon and nitrogen - and has no lingering effect known to science.
Mr. Buchanan said cyanide when found naturally at small concentrations was not stable in nature for a significant period at concentrations high enough to cause harm to the public or wildlife.
"Medical professionals understand that cyanide has no cumulative effects on living organisms including humans and has no connection with cancer, miscarriages, nervous problems or any other health condition. The human body quickly breaks down cyanide to its natural components."
He said following the incident, the GGL had made modifications to its structural designs to forestall future accidents.
Journalists, who were conducted around the Tarkwa mine where the spill emanated from, found out that one of the pipelines at the company's leach pad - where the gold is extracted using cyanide, had been disjointed.
At the time the journalists were being conducted round the mines work was going on new infrastructure to ensure that no such incident happened again.
Mr Buchanan said the EPA and Mines Inspectorate were on the site on the day of the incident and samples taken by the EPA for analysis showed that there was no contamination by heavy metals as a result of the spillage.
The team could, however, not reach the management of the Satellite Goldfields Limited (SGL), the second mining company that hit the headlines for cyanide spillage on October 28 at Akyempim in the Mpohor Wassa East District.
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Sunyani (Brong Ahafo) 06 November 2001 - The on-going nation-wide registration of the unemployed may be disrupted in the Brong Ahafo Region if additional registration forms are not supplied immediately.
Already some of the registration centres at Dormaa, Chiraa and Techiman have reported shortage of the questionnaire, bringing the exercise to a halt.
Mr Martin Opoku, Regional Statistician and Co-ordinator of the Programme told the media at Sunyani on Monday that he had sent an urgent message to the Ministry of Manpower Development and Employment on the situation.
He said this came to his notice after inspecting some of the centres, but as at about 12noon none of the forms had been received. A total of 20,000 questionnaires were distributed to the 41 registration centres in the region at the start of the exercise. These centres have been registering between 70 and 100 people a day.
Mr Opoku estimated that about 50,000 questionnaires would be needed for the duration of the exercise in the region.
He said registration officers were complaining about delay in paying them part of their allowances as promised them. "In spite of these complaints, however, even those who have to travel to their centres are at post and working very hard".
He commended the District Chief Executives for their assistance and encouragement to the officers.
Meanwhile, hundreds of the unemployed and under-employed continue to besiege the various registration centres at Sunyani. The exercise, which would last two weeks, would provide the relevant data to develop individual profiles of the jobless youth and put them into categories.
Meanwhile, about 820 unemployed and under-employed in the Nkoranza District have so far been registered since the nation-wide exercise started last Wednesday.
Mr Raphael Alorwu, a Registration Official, said at Nkoranza on Monday that three centres have been created in the district for the exercise.
He gave the breakdown as, Nkoranza 350, Nkwabeng 320 and Busunya, 150 persons. "The response is very encouraging as you can see from the queues at the centres, giving the officials no time to rest", he added.
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Sunyani (Brong Ahafo) 06 November 2001 - One hundred and forty-seven people were killed in motor accidents in the Brong Ahafo Region between January and September, Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCOP) Mr George Obeng announced in Sunyani on Monday.
DCOP Obeng, who is the Regional Commander of Police, said 608 others were injured in the 480 motor accidents involving 676 vehicles that were recorded during the period.
Last year 144 people were killed and 455 others got injured in 550 road accidents involving 682 vehicles in the Region.
He was speaking at the last of a series of three-day workshops on road accident data collection and basic first aid for personnel of the Motor Traffic and Transport Unit (MTTU) at Sunyani.
Sixty participants from the Ashanti and Brong Ahafo Regions are attending the workshop organised by the Building and Road Research Institute (BRRI) of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) and National Road Safety Commission (NRSC) with the Danish International Development Agency (DANIDA) as the sponsors.
DCOP Obeng noted that the rate of road accidents in the country "indicates a worsening trend with high fatalities" and, therefore, called for the enforcement of laws and regulations relating to road safety.
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Accra (Greater Accra) 06 November 2001 - The national leaders of the Convention People's Party (CPP), People's National Convention (PNC) and the National Reform Party (NRP) involved in the Nkrumaist Unity Talks over the weekend indicated their intentions to step aside in the interest of unity.
The leaders stated that, "we are ready to resign our various national positions in our individual parties should it become necessary and elect an interim executive to run affairs until a national delegates' congress for the realisation of the dream of adopting a common Nkrumaist progressive party for the 2004 general election."
Dr Abubakar Alhassan, CPP National Chairman, Mr Goosie Tanoh, NRP presidential candidate and executives of the PNC stated their intentions at a reception organised for the visiting UK and Northern Ireland branch chairman of the CPP, Dr B. Hanson, in Accra.
The reception was attended by high-ranking members of the three parties including Professor George P. Hagan, CPP Presidential Candidate in the 2000 elections, Mr Tanoh, Dr Nii Noi Dowuona, General Secretary of CPP, Dr Adolf Luttrodth, Greater Accra Region Chairman of the CPP.
Others were Mr Kyeretwie Opoku, General Secretary of NRP, Ms Emelia Arthur, Deputy General Secretary of NRP.
Dr Alhassan said the attainment of political power in 2004 general election by the Nkrumaist tradition demanded commitment, dedication and mobilisation of the masses through active involvement of both the youth and the old guards, who should serve as inspirers.
He said the motto: "Forward ever Backward never" should be the guarding principle throughout their deliberations for unity.
Dr Alhassan said the CPP believed in state involvement in strategic enterprises for the benefit of the vulnerable and rural folks. "Without state interventions over 70 per cent of Ghanaians in the rural areas would not experience, benefit and feel the impact of private sector growth."
Dr Alhassan said the CPP stood for limited state control and ownership of enterprises especially in key areas such as health, education and other social services.
Ms Arthur called for the involvement of women at the grassroots through to the national level, who must be prepared to compete with their male counterparts for executive positions.
She said the growth and strength of the party depended largely on the contributions and active involvement of women at all decision-making positions.
Dr Hanson emphasised the need for a united socialist party for the ordinary man and called on the various Nkrumaist parties in the country to bury their individual difference and unite.
He advised members of the Nkrumaist tradition to reactivate their structures throughout the country and pledged support from the UK and Ireland branches.
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Accra (Greater Accra) 06 November 2001 - The Youth Wing of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) on Monday called for the immediate prosecution of Warrant Officer Patrick Kuntoh, former aide de camp and body guard of ex-President Jerry Rawlings for "deceit and mischief".
This is because a police report following investigations into claims by Mr Kuntoh that armed robbers attacked him vindicated its position that it was "a stage-managed affair calculated to create instability with the view to subverting the current constitutional dispensation."
A statement in Accra signed by Mr. John Boadu, Acting Head of Political Bureau of the Youth Wing, said it found Mr Kuntor's action a clear case of deceit and mischief.
It said the details of the report, which was no doubt, the result of painstaking and professional efforts, showed that ex-President Jerry Rawlings and his band were prepared to resort to violence to further their diabolic and sinister agenda.
Mr Kuntoh had said armed robbers attacked his residence and a statement from the office of ex-President Rawlings said he cut short a trip to Botswana because of an assassination attempt on his aide de camp.
"The details of the so-called attack confirm suspicions of elements of the (P)NDC being the brains behind the recent spate of armed robberies, which has assumed alarming proportions since the NPP took over the government this year.
"This grand design has clearly emerged as a carbon copy of the campaign of destabilisation conducted by Rawlings against the Limann regime, which culminated in the overthrow of that government by the very Rawlings who handed over power to him.
"Unfortunately this time, the NDC, a constitutional body seems to have lent itself as an instrument for the execution of this subversive act."
It urged the security agencies to step up their surveillance duties in the interest of the overall security of this country.
"We suggest a 24-hour round-the-clock watch of Rawlings and his partners in subversive conduct, no matter the noises of 'intimidation and harassment' they are bound o make."
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Wa (Upper West) 06 November 2001 - Barely a year after the country's general election most political parties in the Upper West Region have abandoned political activities.
While some of the regional party offices have been turned into tailoring and laundry shops, others have been locked up, perhaps waiting for another election year to come.
Ghana News Agency investigative visits to the party offices showed that apart from the National Democratic Congress (NDC) office, which was opened for political business, those of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), People's National Convention (PNC), Convention People's Party (CPP) and United Ghana Movement (UGM) have been turned into tailoring and laundry shops.
The offices of the National Reform Party (NRP), EGLE Party and Democratic People's Party (DPP) were locked. The Great Consolidated People's Party (GCPP) office could not be traced.
The political temperature has fallen low to the extent that even the NDC office that was opened was visibly covered with cobwebs and dust and there was only one man, who was flipping through newspapers.
At the PNC office, an occupant Kojo Danjomah told the GNA that because political activities were low they were using the place as a shop so that it did not deteriorate.
"When political activities gear up, we shall use the office for the purpose for which it was set up," Mr Danjomah said.
The story was different at the NDC office where Mr Charles Dery Bampuo told the GNA that they were re-organising seriously to re-capture the political leadership of the country.
He said though the office was empty with dusty tables and chairs, their people were on the field picking up the pieces for the next general election.
Paradoxically, the ruling NPP office which has been turned into a tailoring shop was said to have been loaned to the party during the 2000 elections and was therefore taken back after the elections.
"If they come back today in need of the office we shall give it back to them," the source who pleaded anonymity concluded.
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Accra (Greater Accra) 06 November 2001 - Total deductions of 2.5 per cent from the Value Added Tax (VAT) due the Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund) as at December 2000 stood at 168 billion cedis. But only 120 billion cedis has been deposited in the GETFund account as at October 25, this year.
According to the VAT Commissioner, 91 billion cedis has been collected from January 31st to March 31st, 2001, saying 370 billion cedis is projected to be collected this year.
"Therefore, 538 billion cedis should be available to GETFund for July 2000 to December 2001."
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Accra (Greater Accra) 06 November 2001 - The World Bank's Board of Executive Directors on Tuesday said it has approved revisions to the Bank's policy on disclosure of information which would bring changes that would ensure greater transparency and accountability to the Bank's support for developmental process.
Further steps include the release of Heavily Indebted Poor Country (HIPC) documents at decision and completion points. Until now, the Bank's archived dosuments have been available only on a case-by-case basis.
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