Picture: Fly River, Western Province (Malum Nalu)

Source: The National

The Fly River in Western “is gone” as a result of the massive damage to the environment caused by mining over the years, according to Environment and Conservation Minister John Pundari.

He told Parliament Wednesday that there was no point in putting up a tailing dam (to withhold the waste) now because the damage to the river by the Ok Tedi Mining Limited “cannot be undone”.

“What difference will it make when we have the damage already? The Fly River system is gone. The livelihood of our people, if any, is gone,” he said.

“We’ve lost it. If we have to build a dam today, just to tell the world and show the world, and tell ourselves that we are doing the right thing for ourselves, and for our future generations, I don’t know what the tailings dam will do.

“What will this tailings dam save?” 

He was contributing to the debate on the Eminent Persons Group report tabled by Prime Minister Peter O’Neill. 

The group was set up by the National Executive Council to mediate and facilitate an agreement between the State, PNGSDP, BHP Billiton and OTML after differences over the impact of mining on the communities in Western.

“It will take 50 to 100 years for natural occurrences to help rehabilitate it (Fly River). That is a long time,” Pundari said.

North Fly MP Boka Kondra said the people had suffered greatly because of the Ok Tedi mining operation. In a lengthy and emotional address, he told of the plight of his people, who had silently been suffering from various ailments as a direct result of mine pollution on Fly River.

“People are dying, mothers are dying, children are dying, with not much benefits (from the mine),” Kondra said.

“I brought in a media team from Japan and they went to a village where they found 17 deformed children. When this was shown in Japan, millions of people there were in tears. Look at how many people are dying along the river.”

Sumkar MP Ken Fairweather  said it was ironic for the Government to continue operating the Ok Tedi mine after the huge damage to the Fly River by previous operator BHP Billiton. 

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Peter O’Neill says the reserves of the Elk-Antelope project in Gulf have not been mortgaged and the project will go ahead as planned.

“There’s no mortgaging of Elk-Antelope or PNG LNG for that matter. I think we have not even gone to that stage of negotiations with the developers of Elk-Antelope as yet,” he said in response to questions from Kikori MP Mark Maipakai. 

“Only recently, TOTAL has bought into InterOil in this particular project and as a result they have conditions which they have put forward as a result of that purchase that includes independent verifications of the reserves Elk-Antelope.”

Maipakai has asked O’Neill to reveal the reserves of the project and when it would reach the construction stage. 

He said Horizon arrived recently but had already reached the project agreement stage.

O’Neill said the Department of Petroleum and Energy had explained that the drilling programme was continuing. 

He said it would be a few more months before they could confirm to Government the actual status of the reserves. 

“In terms of the final endorsement decision I’m advised that decision will be made after the reserves have been confirmed and of course it will be in the next 12 months or so but that is again up to the developer which is TOTAL company,” he said.