For the past 3 weeks
I’ve been fortunate to be part of a team and film crew traveling about 4000 km's throughout
Papua New Guinea. With rather open ended questions the purpose of the trip was
to document development patterns with an emphasis on PNG’s experience dealing
with mining over the past 30 years, and to share that experience with Solomon Islands by a series of documentaries.
Our first stop was
Kiunga and Tabubil, 18 km's from West Papua, and the township of Ok Tedi Mining Ltd. Since it’s beginning in
1982 Ok Tedi has been one of the longest operating mines in PNG. Environmental
issues have been at the forefront of Ok Tedi’s operation with 100,000 tones of
toxic tailings being dumped direct into the Ok Tedi River which merges with
into the Fly River the largest river system in the entire Pacific. Ok Tedi has
been the subject of environmental concerns for many years.
Recently the company
has been attempting to clean up its image by putting measures in place, such as
a dredge to ensure the tailings and sediment that builds up in the river system
is reduced. However, the long term effects of the mine has resulted in the
permanent damage of long the 1000 km of river.
We spent a few days
documenting this, and meeting with villages who live along the river system. It
was fascinating to hear the stories of local peoples, and impacts and changes
they have seen along this water course. The company has also made efforts to
offset these damages, for example, by assisting the people become involved in
trade and commerce by purchasing a cargo boat and passenger ferry. Yet the
permanent environmental damage as a result of the mine to use still outweigh
these economic endeavours.
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