North Kordofan villagers demand dismantling of toxic gold-extraction factory

The residents of El Marakh area of Jabrat El Sheikh village in North Kordofan submitted a memorandum to the Governor of North Kordofan, the federal Ministers of Health and Minerals and the locality authorities demanding dismantling of the ‘Karta’ factory that was established in the area.

Ahmed Khater, the secretary general of the national committee for environmental advocacy, told Radio Dabanga that the memorandum presented by the heads of the popular committees, representatives of youth and notables of Kababish tribe dealt with the negative effects of the gold-extraction factories on the environment, that threaten the lives of people and livestock because of its use of cyanide.

The memorandum warned of the expected harms of the factory on agricultural production, pointing to its construction near water sources and agricultural land.

The memorandum pointed to the factory's consumption of large amounts of surface well water which will threaten the area with drought.

Dam construction

The people of Kajbar, Dal and El Shireig have strongly rejected the statements made by Minister of Electricity and Water Resources, Mutaz Musa, in which he announced the construction of the dams during the next three years.

The anti-dam committees in Kajbar, Dal and El Shireig in addition to the international committee against dams, expressed in separate statements the residents' readiness to resist any move to build the three dams.

El Hassan Hashim, the general secretary of the Nubian development corporation and the resistance of Dam, told Radio Dabanga that the anti-committees have begun to consult on the statements to agree on a practical response to the minister's statements, pointing out a trend to gather all the dam victims in a high committee in the process of anti- dam resistance.

He said the people of the Nubian region had four martyrs in 2007 in rejection of these dams and stressed their readiness to defend their land.

El Hassan Hashim stressed the lack of technical and economic feasibility of the three dams and pointed out that the studies have proved that the dams mentioned are not useful for agriculture; which confirms the disappearance of the local option and the displacement of citizens.

He explained that the experience of Hammadab Dam (Merowe) is enough for people not to agree to the establishment of dams, noting that the areas of Amri, Hammadab and Manasir lack electricity and water.

He stressed that the dams cannot be established without the consent of citizens.