By Septimus Senessie in Kono
Diamond miner, OCTEA Koidu Limited operating in the eastern diamond rich district of Kono, yesterday donated 30 plastic containers with taps for hand washing to the Kono district council in Koidu town.
The gesture was the first in terms of donation so far made by the mining company since the outbreak of Ebola in the country some three months ago to promote hand washing with chlorinated water.
The gift attracted some criticisms from a section of civil society body in the district with some describing the donation as “less significant and not provocative to save the people of Kono district and especially those who died of the disease.”
District coordinator of Campaign for Just Mining, CJM, Ibrahim Hamed Tamba Bockarie, told Politico in an interview that “OCTEA is not serious and has no respect for the lives of Kono people and even those who died of the disease.”
He expressed frustrations over OCTEA’s intervention, saying “this is mere cheapness on the part of the biggest diamond mining company in the country that has witnessed other mining companies like African Minerals and London Mining donate huge sums of money to help the government fight the deadly Ebola. Instead they only turned around to donate empty jerry cans to fight Ebola”.
He complained that “they should bow their heads in shame and collect back their empties which we see as useless.”
Tamba Senessie of LEAD Sierra Leone, a similar group, also said that “this is a clear sign that OCTEA is an exploitative mining company operating outside the goods of the people of Kono District.” He said if the government cared for its citizens “this would have been enough reasons to exit OCTEA out of Sierra Leone.”
Reacting to the attacks, the head of community development at OCTEA, Henry Vagg, admitted to Politico that that was their first contribution made to the government of Sierra Leone through the councils to help eradicate Ebola out of the country.
As to why a company as huge as OCTEA that operated the third biggest washing plant in Africa with a capacity of about 180 tonnes per hour could not be compared to others, he said: “We would have done more than that but our company was running at a huge economic loss and we can’t do more than what we don’t realize from the proceeds of our company.”
“In fact the bold step we had taken on the 4 August to send home thousands of our workers away in compliance with the presidential request, has a ripple effect on the production of our company,” he said and added that they “this in itself is a big help to fight against Ebola because our workers on that day were given chance to sensitize their families on the existence of Ebola.”
He said it didn’t matter if the decision to keep away workers for one day was theirs or not and what mattered was “our own production. We do not have one source of securing funds to run our company.”
Meanwhile, chairman of the Kono District council, Councilor Aiah Abduraman Koninga, thanked OCTEA for the donation and assured of their proper distribution to strategic locations.
He said as chairman of the Ebola coordinating unit in the district he had also asked OCTEA to help them with a vehicle and fuel support to carry out sensitization on the disease in the district.
(C) Politico 07/08/14
