Latest update January 20th, 2025 4:00 AM
Dec 21, 2010 News
For the past week, residents of Mahdia have been without potable water as the mains providing water to the community has been damaged. According to Regional Chairman Senor Belle, the problem should be rectified some time later today.
Belle said that pipelines some three miles away from Mahdia have been damaged by gold miners who were operating in the area. However, when asked about prosecution for those responsible for the damages, Belle said that this has been a difficult situation for them to handle.
He explained that given the fact that mining is dominant around Mahdia, miners simply work on land for a short period of time and then move on.
“By the time we get the report that a pipe has been damaged in a particular area and we move into that area the people are gone…What we also find is that miners never own up to the damage or never say who did it.”
Belle said the miners work together and are never willing to give information to the authorities about the broken pipes. He added that this has been a challenge for years in the area, given the fact that the water supplied to the community comes from a gravity feed plant which is located several miles away from Mahdia.
Belle added that only recently authorities were forced to reinstall six pipe lines which were damaged over a period of time.
“This is costly to the administration and those suffering are never willing to offer their service in any kind, whether it be to assist in repairs or to be on the lookout for miners who set up operation where pipe lines run.”
Belle further noted that the increasing gold price is contributing to the issue which he said is occurring more frequently in recent times.
“With the increase in gold price miners just set up operation without finding out how deep they can dig, they just dig without asking and when action is taken they get upset”. He further called on miners to be more responsible when carrying out their operation in and around Mahdia since it is the residents who suffer when there is no water to the community.
The Chairman further talked about the cost for repairing the damaged mains. He said that given the location where the damage occurred it is very costly to carry out repairs.
“We are talking taking an excavator to the location which will take $40,000 per hour; then we have to cater for fuel, and manpower.”
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