Villages to benefit from water project

Barrick Gold (TSX: ABX) Corporation subsidiary, Barrick (Niugini) Limited has initiated a water project that is benefiting villages within the special mine lease area.

The area villages of Alipis and Apalaka were the latest to benefit from the project.  

In September last year the special mine village of Panandaka was the host of the pilot project.

The Panandaka project saw the installation of 15 water tanks of sizes ranging from – 9000 litres, 5000 litres and 1000 litres at diffrent locations in the village.

Barrick has now expanded the project to include Alipis and Apalaka villages.

Alipis community leaders signed an agreement with the company in December.

The company’s community relations and community development supervisor Gibson Na’au said village water committees were set up for each village to oversee and co-ordinate the project. “The project focuses on forming partnerships with the water committees in the design, construction and the management of rain water catchment systems, to help improve community access to get sufficient drinking water,” Na’au said. 

The project at Alipis started on Dec 16 with the installation of four 9000L tanks. Two of these had been put up next to a company building at Yoko one, with taps running into accessible and public areas within Alipis for about 1500 villagers. 

The other two tanks were installed at the Christine Apostolic Church building in the village.

Pastor Joseph Paul, on behalf of the Alipis community, thanked the comapny for delivering such essential service to the community.

On Jan 13 Apalaka leaders signed an agreement for their project. 

Nine tanks had been installed at selected locations within the village. 

There will be two 5000L tanks  that would be installed at the Seventh-Day Adventist Church in Waiwanda and seven 9000L tanks at individual residences with taps running into a common area for public access. 

The tank locations were selected based on roof suitability and accessibility. 

All installations will be carried out by suitably qualified contractors from Apalaka and supervised by experts from the company. 

All costs relating to the project were being met by the company, Apalaka community leaders, Village Court Magistrate Buka Dilipa and councillor Lukas Karapus thanked the company for the initiative to help the areas to have access to clean drinking water. 

Water sampling and monitoring on quality is being conducted by the the company environment department. 

The overall maintenance of the tanks and their fittings once installed,  would be the responsibility of the village water committee including the  community access to water. 

 The project has now been extended to the special mine lease area villages of Yarik, Timorope, Pakien Camp and Mungulep.

The project villages are selected based on the degree of impact and proximity to mine operations and because they are located within the area and lease for mining purposes boundaries.

Barrick, on behalf of the Porgera Joint Venture, is the operator of the Porgera Gold Mine in Enga. 

The mining company employs more than 2500 Papua New Guineans and contributes about 11 per cent of  the country’s total annual exports each year. It tries to provide better services to the mining villages.