Malawi Civil Society Against Paladin to discharge Kayerekera Uranium mine Water

Malawi Civil Society Against Paladin to discharge Kayerekera Uranium mine Water

The Malawi Civil Society Organisations under the banner of Natural Resources Justice Network (NRJN), traditional leaders, local communities against Paladin Africa Limited's intentions to discharge contaminated water from the trailings dam at Kayerekera Uranium mine into Sere or North Rukuru Rivers.

This call comes few days following recommendation by the National Water Development & Management Technical Committee in the Ministry of Agriculture for the Minister to issue a permit allowing Paladin Africa Limited to discharge water from the tailings ponds at the Kayelekera Uranium Mine into the Sere or North Rukuru Rivers. The Committee contented that Paradin has satisfied International recommendation of treating water safe for drinking.

NRJN has released a statement expressing their stand on the matter and it has set 7 days which the deadline is Wednesday 26th November, 2014 demanding Paradin to give them an official statement confirming it did not discharge its water otherwise the group shall explore all means to ensure that Paladin does not endanger the lives of poor Malawians.

The CSOs are of no doubt of tailings, which are mainly in the form of sludge (mud), comprise of waste uranium rocks, acids, and other chemicals that if the decision is effected “there shall be escalated radiation exposure to the people near the area including contamination of the rivers that directly drains into Lake Malawi. It is a known fact that the used in the processing of the yellow cake.

The statement issued on 19th November 2014 has eight signatories among them NRJN Board chairperson, chiefs and other organisations that are representing local communities.

NRJN has more than 33 CSOs who are actively in the extractive industry sector in Malawi under the network such organizations includes, FOCUS, Citizen for Justice(CFJ), Action Aid - Malawi, Centre for Human Rights and Rehabilitation (CHRR), IPI, CCJP, CCAP Livingstonia Synod Church and Society Programme, CEPA, MEJN, amongst several others.

Read the Statement

Malawi Civil Society Organisations, Traditional leaders, local communities, and religious leaders against Paladin Africa Limited’s intentions to discharge contaminated water from the tailings dam at Kayerekera Uranium Mine into Sere/North Rukuru Rivers.

We, the under-mentioned members of the Natural Resources Justice Network (NRJN) – a grouping of over 33 civil society organizations, who are active in the Extractive Industry Sector (Mining, oil and gas) and including Local Community members, Traditional Authorities, faith Leaders and concerned citizens around Karonga , do hereby express our rave concerns following the recommendation by the National Water Development & Management Technical Committee in the Ministry of Agriculture for the Minister to issue a permit allowing Paladin Africa Limited to discharge water from the tailings ponds at the Kayelekera Uranium Mine into the Sere / North Rukuru Rivers which will eventually flow into Lake Malawi 50 kilometres downstream.

Our collective position on the matter follows the Sumuka Inn declaration where members of the Natural Resources Justice Network, local community members , chiefs, church leaders and concerned citizens living in Karonga convened at Sumuka Inn in Karonga to deliberate on Paladin Africa’s intentions to effect such an exercise, which according to the delegates and also in the absence of adequate, convincing information, posed serious imminent and future environmental and human rights implications on the country especially on the people living in Karonga district. The meeting, which was held on 4th November 2014, came up with several recommendations and demands for both Paladin and Malawi government to act upon with utmost urgency. Prior to the Sumuka Inn declaration, Paladin Africa bankrolled and facilitated the summoning of a District Executive meeting at Karonga district council on 28th October with the objective of buying political support from the members as well as invited chiefs present at the meeting just to support their highly questionable plan to discharge toxic effluent into natural river systems.

According to officials from Paladin Africa Ltd present at the meeting, Paladin fears that if the water from the tailings dam is not released into Rukuru River then there is a high risk that the contaminated water from the dam would overflow as a result of the impending rains. It was, however, very clear from the deliberations and outcome of the said DEC meeting that the popular opinion wasn’t convinced to support their stance, and hence expressed their deep reservations against the move. Paladin claims the water to be discharged will be managed to meet the World Health Organisation (WHO) drinking water guideline for uranium, which is 30 micrograms per litre. Paladin said that there would be no risk to people drawing water for domestic purposes from the river system downstream from Kayelekera Uranium Mine, nor any threat to the environment.

However, it is beyond reasonable doubt that if the decision is effected there shall be escalated radiation exposure doses, primarily to the people of Karonga and most parts of Malawi in general since the river directly drains into Lake Malawi. It is a known fact that the tailings, which are mainly in the form of sludge (mud), comprise of waste uranium rocks, acids, and other chemicals used in the processing of the yellow cake. This means that as long-lived decay products such as thorium-230 and radium-226 are not removed, the sludge still contains 85% of the initial radioactivity of the ore. Due to technical limitations through the process of extracting yellow cake, all of the uranium present in the ore cannot be extracted. As a result the sludge still contains 5% to 10% of the uranium initially present in the ore. In addition, the sludge contains heavy metals and other contaminants such as arsenic, as well as chemical reagents used during the uranium milling process. Radioactive nuclides take thousands of years to become relatively harmless i.e. the level of radioactivity of the tailings remains constant for more than 10,000 years. There is thus, a strong possibility of the people living along the river banks and beside the Lake being exposed to unnaturally high levels of radiation and water toxicity.

In addition, confirmed reports indicate that the Kayelekera Tailings Storage Facility is holding one of the highest grade ore which had been dumped due to uranium extraction complications that arose because of the nature of rocks that were intercepted at depth hence most of it went to the tailings as effluents. This is even a rare case in most of the tailings at world standard. As such we do not subscribe to the claims by Paladin that the water to be released into the environment would be free of radio-nuclides, as there is no scientifically proven process supporting such claims.

The fact that Paladin fears overflowing from the tailings ponds, is indicative of major flaws in the design and construction of the tailings pond. It is however very shocking and inhumane for Paladin to put the lives of millions of Malawians at risk as a result of their own failure to plan properly.

The dismal past track record of governmental monitoring and regulation of mining operations does not inspire confidence. We therefore insist that no permit to dump waste effluent be granted to Paladin (or anyone else) until such time as we are assured that the relevant Ministries are fully capacitated to maintain constant vigil of an international standard on the quality and purity of the waste water on a long term basis.

It therefore seems to be a callous disregard for the rule of law and adherence to their EIA for Paladin to resort to such strategies simply to minimise their costs. In simplest terms we would say that Paladin is taking advantage of the weak laws and the relatively low capacity of the law enforcement system in Malawi.

We therefore ask Paladin to build a second tailings dam as was the initial plan and consequently refrain from this malicious practice of discharging radioactive effluents into the river systems, which would subject lives of innocent Malawians to a series of acute and chronic health effects.The short, medium to long term health hazards emanating from exposure to high levels of radiation include lung cancer, skin cancer, cancer of the throat, nausea, loss of hair, etc.

We also caution the Government of Malawi through the minister for Agriculture to refrain from rushing into granting permission to Paladin Africa to dispose such wastes in the absence of clear, honest wide consultations and dissemination of the information on the matter. We would view the act as, not only undemocratic and hence a clear human rights violation, but also an indicator of the perennial cancer that has become of our governments of not putting the interests of their subjects at heart. More disheartening is the opacity with which the Malawi government appears to have conducted the dealings with Paladin Africa on the matter, that it took the efforts of some Civil Society leaders and communities to unearth these clandestine moves which have no place in the democratic dispensation. Perhaps, this is the reason why the government continues to postpone the tabling of access to information legislation in parliament for passing into the law as well as the public release of the environmental assessment audit report which remain within the confines of those in authority. This must be condemned in the strongest terms.

We remind the Government of Malawi of their constitutional responsibility to nurture and maintain environmental sanctity for future generations as enshrined in S13 (d) of our Constitution, which amongst other things, states that the Government shall manage the environment responsibly in order to:

i. prevent the degradation of the environment;

ii. provide a healthy living and working environment for the people of Malawi;

iii. accord full recognition to the rights of future generations by means of environmental protection and the sustainable development of natural resources; and

iv. conserve and enhance the biological diversity of Malawi.

We therefore demand that:

i)                    Paladin immediately halts the process of discharging radioactive effluents into our river system. Instead Paladin should conform to the initial plans of building a second tailings dam. In this regard, we are giving Paladin Africa Limited a maximum of 7days (up to Wednesday 26th November, 2014) to give us an official statement confirming that this practice has been stopped. We demand that Paladin should conform to the plant design recommendations of building a second tailings dam. Failing to abide by this, we the undersigned shall explore all means at our disposal to ensure that Paladin does not endanger the lives of poor Malawians.

ii)                  Within a maximum of seven days (up to Wednesday 26th November, 2014) Paladin should inform the whole nation the actual reason why they would want to release water from the tailings dam. The tailings dam does not collect surface running water and as such there is no way the tailings dam would overflow because of just rainwater.

iii)         Government should urgently set up an independent water quality monitoring team for the Kayelekera Uranium Mine, which shall comprise amongst others civil society representatives, chiefs, local community members, and relevant independent technocrats. We further demand that a detailed environmental audit be done in a transparent manner with the results made public.

iv)                Government must under no circumstances allow Paladin to release water from the tailings dam into the river system pending wider consultations with stakeholders. Local communities alongside civil society organizations and other key independent technical stakeholders should be extensively consulted on the matter by both government and Paladin.

The statement has been signed by Kossam Jomo Munthali NRJN Board chairperson and Reinford Mwangonde NRJN national coordinator.

Representing the local communities, Paramount Chief Kyungu, Senior Tradional Authority Kalonga, Harry Mwanyembe Councillor for Rukuru Ward, Patrick Kishombe Chairperson for Karonga district council, Winston Mwagomba Uhara Foundation and Ruth Chaula District Coordinator for Karonga Women Forum.

Mutharika implementing his promise; Community Colleges

Community Colleges ready in January

Malawi government has finally made it public that plans to establish Community Colleges in all 28 districts is over and the commencement of classes is in January 2015 and will start very soon to recruitment teachers.

The establishment of Community Colleges is part of increasing access to Technical, Entrepreneurial and Vocational Education and Training (TEVET) for it’s out of school youth and adults who fail to make it to formal TEVET due to limited capacity and restrictive entry requirements.

Secretary for Labour and Manpower Development, Patrick Kabambe in a Press Statement says the first phase of the programme will see the establishment of community colleges in 12 districts of Blantyre, Chitipa, Chiradzulu, Dedza, Karonga, Dowa, Mchinji, Mzimba, Nkhatabay, Nkhotakota, Phalombe and Thyolo. “The rest of the district will follow in the subsequent months.”

“Following the formation of District Management Committees for the establishment of Community Colleges, government has directed that recruitment of first intake should be done in the 30^th November 2014. The recruitment of teachers will start shortly to enable classes to begin in January 2015.” Reads part of the statement

In the statement, Kabambe says trainings will be conducted in the beneficiary communities in order to reduce cost of training on the part of the student and, skills and courses to be offered at a particular college will be in response to the economic activity of particular district.

Government believes that these trainings will increase the skills base which be utilized in the community development projects and establishment of enterprises in addition to increase income for the rural masses and chances of education progression.

To ensure the sustainability of the enterprises, the statement says trainees will be taught business development and entrepreneurship skills.

It adds that Business incubator centres will be established in the areas of focus as one way of building capacity to prospective entrepreneurs to turn innovation into business.

“Generally community colleges will facilitate Graduates to become self employed. However, acquisition for wage employment and progression towards attainment of higher qualification will be encouraged.” Adds the statement

President Professor Peter Mutharika in several rallies and during his campaign promised Malawians that his government will establish community colleges that will offer training opportunities for youth and other members in various communities.

He said such educational facilities shall be owned and run by a community to carter for the youth and adults who would like to further their career and those who did not complete their schooling or never attended school.

A Bicycle Taxi ‘Dampa’ Operator Murder fellow for Jealousy

A Bicycle Taxi ‘Dampa’ Operator Murder fellow for Jealousy

 

A jealousy ‘Dampa’ (bicycle taxi operator) has been arrested by Police in Salima district for alleged murdered of a fellow in the business due fight for customers customers.

According to sergeant Gift Chitowe a Salima Police Public Relations Officer, the suspect is Chimwemwe Babison aged 24 who has been operating Dampa business in the district.

The police officer says the suspect has been complaining that his Dampa business was going down yet his counterpart Edward Chipembere aged 40 was more than lucky when it comes to wining of new customers.

“Both the deceased Edward Chipembere and the suspect Chimwemwe Babison who hails from the same village have been operating bicycle taxi business which is famously known as Dampa. But the suspect became jealousy of his friend for having more number of customers and that they continued to increase.”

“So the suspect decided to murder his fellow just to take up the business and he planned this event for a long time.” Said Sergeant Chitowe

Sergeant Chitowe said the deceased was murdered and burnt in the night of 8^th November when returning from Salima Boma where he went for shopping and that some of the items bought were Petrol fuel that the suspect used to burn victim body. The officer said the body was discovered in the following day.

“Postmortem results at Salima Hospital has indicates that the victim succumbed to head injuries.” Said the Officer

Both, deceased and Babison hails from Misi village T/A Kalonga in Salima district.

Babison is expected to appear in court soon when the ongoing strike by court officers ends, to answer charge of murder.

Chakwera Accuse Govt of Cashgate Report manipulation, politicizing Cashgate Prosecution Process

Chakwera Accuse Govt of Cashgate Report manipulation, politicizing Cashgate Prosecution Process

The Leader of Opposition in Parliament and Malawi Congress Party (MCP) leader Hon. Dr. Lazarus Chakwera says government “manipulated” a Baker Tilly Cashgate Audit Report now in the public hands and that the process of prosecution of people involved has been politicized.

A Baker Tilly cashgate Audit report was made public and Minister of Justice and Constitution Affairs Hon. Samuel Tembenu when presenting the report to Minister of Information last month indicated that the report was intact as was presented to the Auditor General by Baker Tilly itself.

But when interacting with the media in Lilongwe on Wednesday evening, the MCP leader Dr. Lazarus Chakwera said Cashagete report was manipulated and that government is not properly handling the cashgate cases.

Though he did not come so clear to specify by citing where the report is indicating any discrepancy from the original Baker Tilly Cashgate Audit report and the report in circulation, he said in Chichewa that “Ngati tifuna chilungamo chenicheni chazinthu zonse, panafunika kuti ndondomeko yonse yofunika pazinthu izi, ngakhale a Malawi akuti tipatseni zakuti, tiuzeni zakuti, zizikhala zotsatidwa bwino molingana ndi malamulo adzikolino. Tonse timafuna atiuze zidayenda bwanji maina adakhala bwanji, koma zimaonetsa poyera kuti ukawerenga Script ija zimene zakhala highlighted ndizinthu zimene zikukhudzana ndi wakuti wakuti” meaning (For the truth of the matter to be known, proper process and laws of this country were supposed to be followed though there was demand and growing interest of every Malawian to know contents of the report. We all wanted to know who are involved and what happened but this report is only highlighting things that are associated with some individuals)

 “We all want the truth and it does not matter whether the person involved belongs to MCP or not, this is because we are interested in the public money which was stolen and MCP cannot back anyone even if that person was associated with MCP” said Chakwera

On how government is handling Cashgate prosecution process he said although government has stepped up prosecution of Cashgate cases following the release of the Cahsgate report, the process “seems extremely slow and heavily politicized.”

He therefore demanded “Justice of color blind” as government is pursuing the matter, commit to conduct the audit from 2005- 2012 to ensure that all cases of corruption are prosecuted and stepping up of efforts to curb on-going corruption in government institutions.

Chakera also raised number of issues that are affecting Malawi and how his party intends to move forward after losing elections this year.

He noted with concern that it is now four month into new financial year of 2014/2015 without implementation of FISP programme which he said the delay is likely to affect the productivity in the agricultural sector. He added that this might be worsened by Kwacha depreciation as farm inputs will be costly high.

“If we miss agriculture, we are deliberately extending the lean periods we normally experience.” He warned, while calling government to commence FISP programme immediately and address problems usually associated with FISP.

Chakwera also mentioned that he is disappointed as the President of Malawi Congress Party and Leader of Opposition in Parliament that the pace of implementing government programmes targeting poor is too slow, and heavily biased towards the already privileged.

He urged government to serious address issues of increased cost of living, Lack of financial prudence due to political appointments of “army of presidential advisors and members into parastatal boards,” security breakdown, need to offer reasonable pay hike to junior staff members and resolve the industrial strikes in judiciary and Ministry of Education are.

However, Chakwera said MCP has put aside issues and grievances surrounding tripartite elections and chose to put interest of people first for Malawi to move forward.

ASM Symposium Offer Hope to Malawi economy

ASM Symposium Offer Hope to Malawi economy

The recent Artisanal and Small scale Mining (ASM) Policy Consultation Symposium in Lilongwe has agreed on number of critical issues that if properly implemented would expose ASM into International markets.

The results from the two day conference on Wednesday and Thursday last week has also proposed for further research on stumbling blocks and ways to promote ASM subsector.

The conference has empowered an international organization Pact to work with government in spearheading the research in areas of access to market, finance and information among others.

In order to realize the dream of organizing the ASM subsector so that it moves from informal to formal footing in a view of maximizing their earnings hence contributing to the country’s GDP, the conference has in its first recommendation resolved that there is need to further engage with law makers, law enforcement agencies, Malawi Revenue Authority (MRA) and Reserve Bank of Malawi (RBM).

The other five agreements are empowering an international Organisation PACT to do baseline study, needs assessment, quantify and consolidate other policy plans discussed in the conference on how every point will be achieved.

Such studies will be in areas of market analysis to find out where and who has been a buyer for these ASM and to go further on identifying where and who can be the recommended buyer or markets for ASM products.

To ensure that access to finance is “no more far-fetched dream” every business has been urged to be formalized by getting registered and licensed and must be in groups for easy access to financial institutional loans and some financial literacy will be provided to these ASM.

The conference has noted annual events in Arusha, Capetown and identified countries like Srilanka, Thailand, Rwanda and DRC to be areas that ASM’s needs to regularly visit to learn and access information on markets for their products.

Martha Malumba an ASM who was in the conference said agreements made in the conference will greatly support her once the modified policy is enforced.

“Am excited that I was part of this process. We were missed out several conferences. Am also happy that FDH Bank has pledged a continued commitment to support us” She said

Director for Finance and Administration in Ministry of Natural Resources, Energy and Mining Gusto Patrick Mabvuto at the end of the conference said the agreements in this conference will go a long way to transform ASM and will increase government revenue.

He promised that government will endeavour to apply these agreements to ensure their success.

The next conference of the same nature to look at what has been achieved will be in 2015.

Currently, Artisanal and Small Scale Mining activities employ over 20 Thousand people in the country. And the just ended conference has modified some mining policy in order to organize the ASM subsector by moving from informal to formal footing in a view to maximize earnings and revenue to contribute to the country’s GDP.

COPUA releases Amayi Akuferanji Music Album; Launch Saturday This Week

COPUA releases Amayi Akuferanji Music Album; Launch Saturday This Week

The Coalition for the Prevention of Unsafe Abortion (COPUA) is set to release 11 track music album entitled ‘Amayi Akuferanji’ highlighting problems of unsafe abortions and advocating for change of current abortion laws

The album has different genres of music featuring eleven artists among them a famous poet Joseph Mazeze who are in their message highlighting the problems of unsafe abortions which affects the health and lives of women and girls in Malawi.

The Malawi Ministry of Health recorded in 2009 that the magnitude of unsafe abortions was over 70,000 women and girls who induce abortions every year. Out of these, over 30,000 women and girls end up with complications that require to be treated at the hospital and all this is happening since abortion remains a criminal act.

As a Special Law Commission is in the process of reviewing the current Abortion laws, COPUA hopes this to be a right time to come up with ‘Amayi Akuferanji’ music album to raise awareness and educate the public about the need for laws that will promote reproductive health of women.

“We hope to gain support for law reform, through music,” said Godfrey Kangaude and continued “Music is a mode of communication that is effective in spreading messages to large audience.”

He added “COPUA thought that it could use this channel of communication to engage as many Malawians as possible with messages supporting reproductive health and rights of girls and women.”

“We urge all Malawians, through the music in this album to reflect on the lives of girls and women that we lose every day due to complications of unsafe abortions, and those that are living with its negative consequences. We call upon all Malawians to unite and support the reform of abortion laws in order to save the lives and protect the health of our mothers, sisters, daughters, nieces, relatives and friends” pleaded Kangaude

The free show for album launch of Amayi Akuferanji is on 22 November afternoon at Airstrip in Mangochi district and COPUA says the album will be free.

COPUA is a network of over 40 Civil Society Organisations and Individuals in partnership with various government institutions and partners to find lasting solutions to the challenge of unsafe abortions in Malawi.

The underlying cause of unsafe abortions is in Malawi is failure to access safe abortion since current laws restrict access to abortion only to conditions where the life of the pregnant women is in danger. This forces women and girls to terminate their pregnancy through unsafe methods which sometimes results in permanent disability or death.

Studies have estimated that 17% of maternal deaths are a result of unsafe abortions. And the most marginalized girls and women bear the greatest burden of unsafe abortion as those who are more privileged can afford relatively safe abortions.

There is hope that where girls and women are allowed to access safe abortion, the incidence of unsafe abortion is very low.

Govt not dormant in the ongoing differences between Local Councillors, MPs

Govt not dormant in the ongoing differences between Local Councillors, MPs

Government says efforts are being done to facilitate effective integration of Councillors in their respective Councils in order to end the ongoing wrangle between them and Members of Parliament (MPs) regarding their roles and responsibilities.

Honorable Tarsizio Gowelo Minister of Local Government and Rural Development made the remarks at a media conference in Lilongwe on Monday, on how the Ministry is progressing on the ushering in of newly elected Councillors into office in all councils to ensure that they are providing better service in their communities.

The Minister acknowledged that there are ongoing misunderstanding between MPs and Councillors surrounding their roles saying the development has been exacerbated by the fact that Councils operated without Councillors in the past 9 years.

He said currently his Ministry together with its cooperating partners among them Malawi Economic Justice Network (MEJN), National Democratic Institute (NDI), have been training Councillors in all the regions across the country.

And in order to assist Councillors discharge their responsibilities effectively, clarify roles of the various members of the Council and foster harmony in their relationship with other stakeholders, the Ministry has developed number of documents including a Guidebook on Local Government System in Malawi; A Guide for Conducting Local Authority Business in Malawi; and a Handbook for Councillors and other Council Members in Malawi.

“From 24 to 30 June, 2014 my Ministry together with our cooperating partners organized concurrent  regional orientation sessions that were carried in all the regions of the country. These orientation sessions were aimed at enlightening Councillors about their roles and responsibilities in the Councils as they had just been ushered in into the Councils”He said

Gowelo also said he made some follow ups to these trainings, by hold meetings with Councillors across the country where himself and senior officers from his Ministry had an opportunity to interact and share a “few principles on how to generate a legacy” in the Councils which is associated with quality service delivery and accelerated socio-economic development.

He indicated that with support from UNDP the remaining members of the Councils including, elected Councillors, MPs, Chiefs and Council Secretariat will be oriented within December this year.

He said very soon the Ministry will enter into a partnership with the National Initiative for Civic Education (NICE) Trust to embark on massive public education in the local government system as a whole, so that people understands roles of various members of the Councils, channel their demands to the right duty bearers and hold them service delivery accountability.

But on Conditions of Service for Coucillors, the minister mentioned that during these meetings, Councillors were taken through their Conditions of Service as approved by Government after thorough consultations within Government and with key stakeholders in decentralisation and Integrated Rural Development.

The Minister said it was made clear to the Councillors that their Conditions of Service are meant to facilitate their operations, and that these Conditions of Service were not meant for full time employment. “After all, the work of Councillors is voluntary” he said. 

But Hon. Gowelo was quick to note that since most of the Councils still need some assistance from the central Government, therefore support will continue to be given to Councils until such a time they are able to stand on their own as it should be.

He said issues of transport for Mayors and Deputy Mayors in Cities and Municipal Councils his Ministry “would try to see how best it could assist.” But he also said his Ministry will initiate consultations within Government and with Cooperating Partners to chart the way forward on proposals made by Councillors most of which bordered on policy, including some improvements in their Conditions of Service, the loan sum and administration of Motorcycle loans.

According to the Minister with support from MEJN, the Ministry has trained Councillors in 20 districts whilst Councillors from 3 Councils have been trained with support from NDI.  He said the ongoing trainings are covering specific areas such as Financial Management, Procurement, Auditing, Planning and Development, Project Management and Ethics in Local Governance.