"Poisonous floods at Obuasi" is the headline that dominates the front page of the Public Agenda. The accompanying story says a 26-year-old small-time entrepreneur, Adelaide Offei Awuku has filed a writ at a Kumasi court seeking to make the Ashanti Goldfileds Company (AGC) Limited liable to pay compensation for the destruction of her poultry farm of 10,000 birds. The Public Agenda says until April 21, this year, 26-year-old Adelaide was the proud owner of a poultry farm locatwed in the giold mining concession of the AGC at Adansi Nhyiaeso, a village near Obuasi. The paper says on the day in question, flood waters contaminated with high levels of cyanide, a poisonous industrial chemical, believed to have been pumped into a nearby stream from the AGC's gold treatment plant, swept through the farm after a downpour, wiping off six months of toil. According to the paper, when the flood subsided, 4,000 layers and broilers lay dead on the farm. It said in the days after the flood, 6,000 more of the birds died from diseases that could not be identified by veterinary doctors who suspected the deaths were due to poisoning. The Public Agenda says Adelaide's investigations were to confirm her worst fears that surface mining activities of AGC were the cause of the disaster. GRI
"Poisonous floods at Obuasi" is the headline that dominates the front page of the Public Agenda. The accompanying story says a 26-year-old small-time entrepreneur, Adelaide Offei Awuku has filed a writ at a Kumasi court seeking to make the Ashanti Goldfileds Company (AGC) Limited liable to pay compensation for the destruction of her poultry farm of 10,000 birds. The Public Agenda says until April 21, this year, 26-year-old Adelaide was the proud owner of a poultry farm locatwed in the giold mining concession of the AGC at Adansi Nhyiaeso, a village near Obuasi. The paper says on the day in question, flood waters contaminated with high levels of cyanide, a poisonous industrial chemical, believed to have been pumped into a nearby stream from the AGC's gold treatment plant, swept through the farm after a downpour, wiping off six months of toil. According to the paper, when the flood subsided, 4,000 layers and broilers lay dead on the farm. It said in the days after the flood, 6,000 more of the birds died from diseases that could not be identified by veterinary doctors who suspected the deaths were due to poisoning. The Public Agenda says Adelaide's investigations were to confirm her worst fears that surface mining activities of AGC were the cause of the disaster. GRI