are not happy as the continued mining activities of coal in their land now threatens their economic sustainability.
“Activities of coal mining companies operating in Ibagwa community over a decade now have drastically destroyed our agricultural lands leaving us without any means of livelihood or economic sustainability.“We are farmers, and the land is where we derive our livelihood. Massive excavation for mining of coal in our community by coal mining companies has laid to waste vast agricultural lands, destroying both existing farms and displacing several indigenes from their ancestral homes.
She said the miners refused to heed their calls to provide potable water for the community, construct access roads, build a community health centre and relocate the community school away from their mining site. Ms Dayil explained that the training for advocacy and communication skills for women’s economic collectables would enable the participants to synergize as a group for greater positive action intended to achieve desired results.
A participant at the workshop and frontline humanitarian activist, Julie Okoh, who led the Igbawa women’s protest to chase out the miners, expressed optimism that the training had widened their horizon on how best to push for their rights. “The community is not saying no to mining but they are asking for alternative economy to mining to sort good lives for themselves because, in any community where such things are happening, it’s the women and children who suffer the most; no hospital, no roads, no schools, no drinking water; the lands are no longer arable due to the effect of mining.
“The effect of mining right now in Owukpa is infertility, women not being able to have children while their water is no longer drinkable. There is no government presence in the whole of Owukpa.”Meanwhile, the women, rising from the workshop, took their advocacy campaign to several corridors of the state government during which they called on the government for intervention to preserve their land as they stressed the need for a state policy to regulate miners’ activities.
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