Amnesty Calls for Action on Sierra Leone Diamond Mine
December 20, 22
(IDEX Online) - Amnesty International is calling on the government in Sierra Leone to address concerns over the impact of a diamond mine on a neighboring community.
It claims their lives are being blighted by blasting operations and by water pollution caused by Meya Mining.
Residents are "forced to evacuate their homes and take shelter in the different structures made by the company until the blasting is over," it says in a new report, entitled Sierra Leone: No diamond is worth the life of a community.
A wood-and-tarpaulin shelter provided by the miner held just 300 of the village's population and was in poor repair, said the report.
It also says water samples tested at two boreholes constructed by Meya Mining revealed levels of nitrates well above the World Health Organization's safe levels.
Amnesty International said it interviewed 128 people in nine communities affected by Meya Mining's operations, and spoke to national and local authorities, as well as senior employees of Meya Mining.
The miner, granted a 25-year license in 2019 to extract and estimated $850m of diamonds, told Amnesty it had taken measures to mitigate some of the impacts of diamond mining.
Amnesty said it was encouraging the Sierra Leone authorities and the mining company to do everything possible, together with the local communities, to alleviate the suffering of people affected by the mine's activities.