Madang villagers claim smoke affecting them

 By DOROTHY MARK

PEOPLE living in villages near the Basamuk mine refinery in Madang claim they are getting sick from smoke coming from its chimneys.

Villagers reported that they have been experiencing severe cough and chest pains from the smoke. They have noticed the effect on food crops.

Community health worker at Diging village Guroko Gero said strong winds carried smoke to the mountains where he lived causing him to have difficulty breathing.

Basamuk employees said they had to put up with the smoke in the work area.

“There is strong smell but what can we do?” an employee said.

A community leader at Mindre village, Terry Kunning, said food crops such as taro and banana trees were dying.

“It wasn’t like before. It’s time to harvest taro but the crop is already rotten when we harvest.”

Vice-president of Ramu Nickel Wang Baowen said the refinery system was shut down once a year to minimise gas emissions and ensure everything was running smoothly.

He said villagers affected were most welcome to come to the refinery clinic to get medical treatment.

RamuNico last week released a statement saying the “taro blight”, a common fungal disease found among plants, including taro, was the cause withering taro leaves and affecting other garden food crops, including yam and banana, at Basamuk villages. It had nothing to do with the smoke coming from the refinery, it said.