By MALUM NALU
Morobe Mining Joint Ventures has denied any knowledge of the fish
deaths in the Markham River of Morobe province last week.
This follows local villagers discovering dead fish and eels
floating on the Markham River and demanding an investigation from relevant
authorities.
Affected communities are from Wampit, Oomsis, Potsie, Markham
Bridge and three Labu villages.
Bulolo MP
and National Planning Minister, Sam Basil, also refused to jump the gun at the
weekend and start blaming MMJV.
David
Wissink, general manager - sustainability and external relations with MMJV,
said last Friday that officers from Department of Environment and
Conservation and Mineral Resources Authority would visit the site last
Saturday.
“It is not
known what has caused the fish deaths, however, such occurrences are a
well-documented phenomenon throughout the world and are usually caused by
depletion in dissolved oxygen in the water,” he said.
“The greatest impact on the river system in the area at the moment
is the Kumalu mudslide where cubic kilometres of sediment have entered the
river system due to the heavy rain.
“The Hidden Valley mine was alerted Wednesday (Feb 15) by locals
from Chiatz village near the confluence of the Watut and Markham Rivers of approximately
500 dead fish and prawns.
“This location is 162km downstream from the mine site.
“The HVJV environment
team has contacted the DEC about the incident but there is nothing that would
point to the mine’s involvement in this matter.
“The mine has agreed
to provide environmental support to help identify the cause.
“The quality of the
water discharged from the Hidden Valley mine operations is monitored on a daily
basis and is reported to the DEC weekly and monthly.
“There are no
abnormalities in the Hidden Valley water quality data as it is well within
compliance parameters.”
Basil
agreed with Wissink when contacted last weekend.
“We have
many activities happening upstream like large and small-scale mining, PNG
Forest Products’ treatment of timber using preservatives, Kumalu River
sedimentation and the recently-dynamited pool of Patep-Munanung (by PNG Defence
Force),” he said.
“I would
wait for the recently-dispatched environmental scientists from the Department
of Environment and Conservation to announce their findings first before I as a
politician make any comments.
“I have
learnt my lessons the hard way, dealing with environmental pollution, that we
have to be 110% correct in our claims.
“The
environment team are the right people to comment on what are the causes of the
dead aquatic animals.
“I will
say something after their feedback.
“I believe
they should do their job without anybody behind their backs so we all wait and
see.”
MMJV need not worry as Sam Basil will not support Watut people any more. He was only voicing their issue to get into government. He is in and very comfortable now to worry about small people. He has a police force behind him courtesy of his immature leader in Namah.
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