Elizabeth further claimed that sharp particles of stones could even cause serious damage to anybody who would be unfortunate, adding that most times she had felt so uncomfortable to stay in her house and now she had the opportunity to protest that by calling on government to ask the Chinese out of the area.
Mohamed Kamara, who claimed to be a community advocate, alleged that blasting had claimed a life before and had damaged property, adding that when they approached the Chinese for redress they would say they didn’t care.
Head of field operations at the EPA, Joseph Turay, the community people had actually sent them a letter of concern on the issue in May this year and they were aware of the cause of the protest.
He said the company operating the quarry that was causing the pollution and discomfort did not have “a valid environmental impact assessment license”.
He said it was because of all those hazards that they had insisted on all companies wanting to embark on such operations to acquire their environment and impact assessment, EIA license.
“The report will clearly state the impact their operations are likely to cause and how they plan to mitigate the impacts on the environment, people and property”, he said.
Turay said for heavy blasting like those the company needed to have “blasting envelops” to compensate those residents in the areas close to their operations, adding that affected people could also be moved from the area so the effect would not be as great as it had proven to be with the Hamilton community.
He disclosed that according to the company’s corporate social responsibility they should have a community development action plan which would clearly state what the community should benefit from their actions. He noted that that was not the case with the Hamilton people who were not benefiting anything from the Chinese blasting company and that there was no dialogue between residents and the company.
