WACAM CLOCKS 15

Posted on: www.dailyguideghana.com

By William Yaw Owusu

Thursday September 19, 2013

The contributions of Wacam, an NGO that crusades against abuse of rights especially in the mining sector has been hailed by many civil society organizations.

After about 15 years of existence, Wacam currently operates in over 100 mining communities in Ashanti, Brong Ahafo, Western and Eastern Regions of Ghana and have enlightened more communities about the effects of haphazard and irresponsible mining practices.

“We have a programme under IBIS where we are sharing our mining advocacy experience with NGOs and mining communities in the three Northern Regions of Ghana,” says Hannah Owusu-Koranteng, Associate Executive Director of Wacam in a statement announcing the organization’s 15 years of advocacy.

“Conservatively, Wacam has trained more than 2,000 activists including community activists, NGOs, students, Trade Unionists, Faith-based organisations among others. We have reached out to thousands of community people.”

“Through our collaboration with Oxfam America, WACAM worked with NGOs and mining communities in Mali and Senegal. Our work in the West African sub-region contributed to the development of the ECOWAS Directive on the Harmonisation of Guidelines and Policies in the mining sector,” she said.

Narrating how Wacam was founded, Mrs. Owusu-Koranteng, said it started with as a small group of activist who were worried about the continuous widespread abuse of human rights and the environment in mining areas in Ghana.

“The age of Wacam is determined by its landmarks. The actual mobilisation and the formation of the Wassa Association of Communities Affected by Mining (WACAM) started in the early 1990s. The 5^th of September 1998 marked a major landmark in the history of WACAM when the organisation was launched atthe Fiase Cinema Hall in Tarkwa,” she said.

“The vision of the founding members of Wacam was to build a new organisation of mining communities and their allies as a platform to raise national awareness on mining issues for the protection of community rights as well as influence national policy on mining.”

She said that the technological change from underground mining to surface mining and the use of cyanide in the heap leach method of gold extraction, “changed the mining sector drastically which unleashed myriad of problems including cyanide spillages, loss of livelihood, water and air pollution, mining related health problems.”

She said other developmental problems included “resettlement and relocation, youth unemployment, environmental degradation, human rights abuses, noise pollution, distortions in socio-cultural settings and low compensation.”

“These problems were enough to cause social disruption and upheavals in mining communities. Poor mining communities came under attacks from combined state and company securities,” she added.

Mrs. Owusu-Koranteng said that “some mining communities live with the scars of gross human rights abuses, social and environmental problems that had been documented by institutions including the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) in 2008.”

For his part, Daniel Owusu-Koranteng, the General Secretary of the Maritime and Dockworkers’ Union who doubles as Executive Director of Wacam said “popular mobilisation of the vulnerable mining communities around the critical issues became the only option to seek local and national attention to solve the problems of the mining communities in the Wassa West District and we redirected our focus on community mobilisation.”

He said that women in mining communities faced mining effects in a special way due to their traditional roles saying “Our women activists are consistent, brave and are able to communicate the community problems in a more passionate and strong manner that their male counterparts. Our special focus on women activists developed into a strong women’s section which has become a driving force of our advocacy work.”

Mr. Owusu-Koranteng said that the proliferation of mining operations in many parts of Ghana and many communities across the country made requests for the expansion of Wacam’s work to their communities.

“We changed our name from Wassa Association of Communities Affected by Mining (WACAM) to Wacam in 2009 to reflect our expansion and to open up the membership of Wacam to broad sections of Ghanaians who do not live in mining communities in line with our vision of becoming a national social movement.”

“Wacam has made a modest contribution to the raising of community and national awareness on mining issues. Our community activists have been so empowered through the rights education to the extent that they can quote from the national constitution and the Minerals and Mining Act to support the protection of their rights.”

“Wacam has developed overtime into an organisation which is a blend of peasants, workers and intellectuals with the needed synergy to challenge corporate impunity. We have shared our mining advocacy experience with many NGOs, Community Groups, Faith-based organisations, Research institutions, Academia, students, Journalists and state institutions.”

He said that Wacam has played its watch-dog role over mining companies and regulatory institutions “to the extent that the love-hate relationship between us has grown into a relationship of mutual respect.”

Through the Victims’ Support programmes, Wacam has been able to provide support for the education and health needs of victims of gross human rights violations from mining companies and state security saying “Wacam has given birth to a number of organisations and we are proud about that.”

He paid glowing tribute to some individuals and organizations saying “The achievements of Wacam have been made possible by the sacrifice of many of our activists, media houses, journalists, sympathisers, partners, NGOs, religious groups, organised labour and individuals.”

“Wacam also owes many organisations and individuals tons of gratitude. We are grateful to organisations such as  Oxfam America, DKA-Austria, Earthworks, Bread for the World, OSIWA, TWN, KASA, IBIS, CEPIL, STAR-Ghana, FIAN, CARE Ghana, RAVI, Trades Union Congress-Ghana and all media houses in Ghana for supporting us to survive in the difficult mining advocacy terrain.”