Anyinam, AngloGold on collision course over decision to review free power supply

A decision by Anglogold Ashanti to review its free power supply to Anyinam in the Obuasi municipality  has brought it on a collision course with the people.

The free power supply was deemed as compensation for the many adverse effects the community had suffered and continues to suffer as a result of the company’s operations.

AngloGold Ashanti has over the years borne the full cost charged the community at an industrial rate, but the Managing Director of the mining company, Mr Fred Attakumah, said the programme had become unsustainable.

He told a September 22, 2014, stakeholders meeting at Obuasi that there was an urgent need for the community to agree on a transition arrangement, in which infrastructure required to move Anyinam onto ECG grid could be laid.

He, however, assured the meeting that power supplied directly through the grid of the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) to the community would be priced at a much lower rate.

The review programme is one of the company’s austerity measures, following the recent downsizing of its 6,000 workforce and shutting down of the old mining site to move upstream.

Unyielding

The people’s voice were trumpeted by their Assembly Member, Mr Lawrence Bondah, who, however, said they would resist any attempt by the company to renege on its earlier promise.

According to the minutes of the September 22 meeting, which the Daily Graphic has a copy, the Member of Parliament for Obuasi West, Mr Kwaku Kwarteng, sought to know the basis for the company's policy to supply free power to Anyinam.

Mr Attakumah responded that there was no clear policy to supply power to Anyinam at the company's expense, and that the current situation arose because of a request by a flour mill operator at Anyinam for free power.

“The company granted the request, and somehow, the benevolence inadvertently spread to the entire Anyinam community,” he said.

Dispute

Mr Bondah disputed this account, and said that the free power supply was “a compensation for the many adverse effects the community had suffered and continues to suffer as a result of the company's operations in their community.”

There was no agreement at the meeting on how power came to be supplied to the Anyinam community at the company's expense.

Mr Kwarteng again sought to know whether the company intended to continue paying for power supply to Anyinam once the community had been moved onto the ECG grid, where the rate is less than the industrial rate.

Neither Mr Attakumah nor Mr Ohene-Adu, Senior Manager, Sustainability of the company, could firmly state whether they would do it. However, Attakumah said this could be discussed after the transition arrangement had been agreed on and implemented.

Way forward

The MP, however, said it was necessary that the company transparently indicated whether or not it intended to bear the cost of power to the communities after moving them on to the ECG grid, so that the community could be fully informed to respond appropriately.

He said while he sympathised with the company's concern that the current situation was unsustainable, he believed that a unilateral withdrawal of the company's power supply support would be wrong and unacceptable.

The meeting

The September 22 meeting was at the request of the MP for the area, who following persistent complaints by the people of Anyinam and Sanso, wrote on September 8 for a stakeholder’s meeting to address the issues.

Among the complaints by the people of Anyinam, in particular, was alleged strange body rashes being suffered by the people as a result of the closeness of the mining activity.

They also complained about flooding in the community during the rainy season from surrounding uphill lands, where past surface mining activities had disturbed the natural topography of the land, as well as an allegation that water supply to the community was unwholesome.

 This, however, was sharply rebutted by Mr Attakumah, who said it was the same source of water that was supplied to the company's residential facilities including his own house, and was regularly tested at the laboratory.