PNG landowners want better compo from mine damage

Transcript

Landowners in the South Fly region of Papua New Guinea's Western Province want more comprehensive compensation over environmental ruin caused by the Ok Tedi mine.

Extensive and long-lasting damage to local river systems, including the Fly, from the discharge of mine tailings over decades has been described as one of the world's worst environmental disasters.

A South Fly landowner representative, Pastor Steven Bagari, told Johnny Blades local people are paid up to 32 US dollars annually in compensation.

STEVEN BAGARI: To us in South Fly and people of Western Province that are affected by the mine, this is not money, it has no value... to the damage it (mine discharge) has done to our environment, our livelihood, our culture, our heritage and our identity as the people from Western Province and mine-affected villages. The river has only become more like a soccer field. In the next ten years time or so, people will be walking from the north bank to the south bank, with the sediment build-up.

JOHNNY BLADES: So it's really dried up, it's a ghost forest around it?

SB: Yep. It's very difficult for us now to cross from the north bank to the south bank. Because previously the river was deep, we can sail anytime whether high tide or low tide, we can still cross. But today it's very difficult to cross because of the sediment build-up.

JB: And who are you calling for compensation from now - is it the government or is it BHP (BHP Billiton, former owner of mine) because BHP is supposed to be out of the picture now?

SB: BHP exited in 2001 and the state has just taken over Ok Tedi. We're calling on the state, Ok Tedi and the provincial government, to provide a just compensation that's valued at the environmental damage done: not only to us today but also into the future as well.

JB: Do you need to have a new assessment o the damage to get this rolling?

SB: We want a new, scientific report done in South Fly - all over the affected area, covering between the border with Australia in Torres Strait and Papua New Guinea, other side of Western province. It's to be a scientific report done again.

JB: when was the last time that you landowners had talks or meetings with the Ok Tedi operators and the state?

SB: Well, we had our representatives from the village, trustees and reps that represent the people... The affected people of Western province, we feel that the government and the company are taking an illegitimate approach. They are simply getting people from the village who have no idea about mining, who have no idea about government, who have no idea about how the companies are run, and the kind of damage that it can cause to the environment, and giving them a lousy compensation. Our leaders from the village are lured into believing in projects - promised projects and promised better compensation packages and future benefits that we have not seen or felt yet. So they continue to sign the agreements for the mine to continue which some of us, like myself, are totally against.

JB: In the South Fly, is it worse now than it was in the 1990s, for instance? Is the pollution, the environmental destruction worse now?

SB: Yes, it's worse now. Last week, we just experienced... about eight people died in the area called Tiere, Maipani and Sagero in the mouth of the Fly River where cyanide drums were dropped in 1984. Right now mysterious deaths are taking place there, right now as I'm speaking to you.