Thousands of local residents destroyed a gemstone mining extraction site managed by Web Gemstone Mining Plc (WGM) at the Waqille Woreda, Web Kebele of Borena zone, last Tuesday.
WGM had been exploring for the precious stone in the area for the past three years and was in the last stages of evaluating the resource, according to Manoj Gaur, General Manager of WGM in Ethiopia.
The UK based company also has a presence on the South African stock exchange and is known for mining and marketing colored gemstones globally.
WGM said they invested around five million USD at the destroyed site over the past three years for exploration, according to the General Manager.
He told Capital that he and other professionals escaped the area fearing violent acts during the end of June when police stepped in.
WGM also has mines in Zambia, Mozambique, and Madagascar.
A worker at the site told Capital that thousands of people invaded the office, residential camps and the store house and that everything was violently destroyed. “The safe boxes and extracted samples were all compromised,” he said.
“We don’t know the exact damage now as no one can enter the area, but we are worried that if the essential documents are destroyed it will be difficult for our re-operation,” said Manoj.
“Local residents raised questions a few months earlier which the regional administrators came to resolve,” he said.
They wanted infrastructure built which the company promised to do. They were frustrated because they felt that it took over 11 years for the company to evaluate the site and inaugurate extraction, which they felt was too long.
The company said that it has only been there since 2015 and it was on the verge of finishing the exploration. The public was confused because there were previous projects conducted at the area and they assumed WGM was there for more than a decade.
The General Manager said the company was providing community services for the residents including sharing its water every day. Previously WGM shared their clinic with residents and created over 100 jobs.
“We were working in a total peace with the community before the situation changed suddenly, and when we reached the extraction stage there have been even more jobs,” said Manoj. “That’s how we do business globally and also we work in an environmentally friendly way, for example, we only use water to purify the bulk sample of the mineral.”
Some residents took to the streets the same day showing their opposition to the action, according to the Zone Administrator.
WGM was planning to extract the stone and export it to the global auction market. They are conducting an exploration study on 200sqm of land in attempts of finding 27km of potential emerald-mineralized area.
Seventeen charged in destruction of Borena Zone mine
Addis Ababa may administer and sell power and communication
A city restructuring plan which would cut the number of agencies to 67 from its current 76 will soon be presented to Prime Minister Abiy Amhed (PhD) for approval.
The plan was drafted over a year ago but was delayed during the period of instability in the country. The new Vice Mayor who assumed power last week is expected to bring the plan to the PM in a few months.
The plan calls for the city to have four vice mayors overseeing the economy, social issues, land and construction, and administrative affairs. The city’s institutions will be run by 22 executive bodies.
A source in the municipality told Capital that the proposed plan may enable Addis to sell and distribute electric power by itself. Currently it is being provided by the Ethiopian Electric Utility.
“If the PM approves the plan we will buy power from the Ethiopian Electric Utility and then we will handle selling and distributing the power to households, companies, roads and government and non-government institutions. We also plan to install solar panels in apartments, condos and other buildings to conserve energy.’’
Addis Ababa has about four percent Ethiopia’s population yet consumes 59 percent of its electricity.
According to the source attempts are being made to improve telecommunication but they are still researching how best to go about it.
“Our citizens now require fast Internet and better communication so we need to upgrade the technology and we are proposing to share some of the work with telecom services.”
According to the source the proposed plan also includes opening more shops in business hub areas.
“Many people want to start their own businesses but don’t know where to work so we will study business hubs in the city and help entrepreneurs find locations suitable for them.”
The city looked at Johannesburg as an example. Another goal of the plan is to clearly differentiate political and professional jobs in the city.
Wheat shortage means bread costs more dough
Wheat scarcity has caused bread prices to double from one to two birr at bakeries which are not getting subsidized flour from the government.
A quintal of wheat is being sold to bakers for 2,000 birr, twice its 1,000 birr a quintal price recently.
At some places bread prices have gone higher than two birr. Consumers who spoke with Capital said bread which was 1.50 birr jumped to 2.60 birr while a 1.60 birr bread roll went to three birr.
The Trade Minister said 700,000 quintals of wheat went to flour companies and bakeries and warned bakeries not to increase bread prices.
One reason for the shortage, according to the Ministry was that wheat was not getting from the Djibouti port to destination centers. However, now they say more trucks are being used to get the grain to bakeries. However, managers at bakeries are saying flour is not reaching their shop, forcing them to search for another option in the market which costs more money.
The Ethiopian Grain Trade Enterprise (EGTE) which has distributed wheat throughout Ethiopia has not given any wheat to flour companies because they are running out of supply. EGTE says the shortage has been caused by delayed procurement of wheat from abroad.
EGTE had been distributing 640,000 quintals of wheat every month to trade bureaus, universities, and prison administrations.
Under normal circumstances Oromia got a quota of 125,305 quintals per month while Amahara, Tigray and Addis Ababa received 72,550,66,417 and 168,000 quintals respectively.
Ethiopian Somali received 21,716 quintals while Afar Gambela, and Beneshangul received 2,875; 20,700 and 20,001 of wheat per month respectively.
Recently EGTE requested one million metric tons of wheat as a loan from the Emergency Food Security Reserve Administration (EFSRA) .
Since the 2014/15 fiscal year, a special route of purchase has been introduced, to increase the supply of wheat for the drought response.
Wheat is being purchased by the Service on behalf of the EGTE, Disaster Risk Management & Preparedness Commission and Strategic Grain Reserve
Currently 400,000 quintals of wheat is under the procurement process.
New software to help city collect better vehicle, driver data
The Addis Ababa Road and Transport Bureau is attempting to determine the exact number of cars on its roads by using new software which will enable the city to collect data about the manufacturing date, model, and operation area of the vehicles to help better manage traffic.
The software will use a driver management information system, vehicle management information system, network and data center infrastructure and driver testing surveillance system. It will be installed by a Chinese company, Beijing E –Hualu Information Technology Co., LtD which will import the material to install the software.
From the estimated 850,000 cars in Ethiopia half are operating in Addis Ababa.
Aregawi Maru, Public Relation head of the Addis Ababa Road and Transport Bureau told Capital that the software will help better analyze and maintain the transport network.
“Our data on licenses and vehicles is inaccurate so we need to upgrade to provide better service for our city.’’ Last year police reported 15,086 accidents and the loss of 2,161 lives.
In the 2005/6 Ethiopian Calendar traffic accidents and fatalities increased 17 % and 10 % per year respectively, but recently there has been a sudden drop. This could be due to random variation or under reporting. Even though the government has invested in road network expansion and rehabilitation, and the extent and severity of road traffic accidents to road transport, Ethiopia has no road safety policy or strategy. As a result of this, road safety issues in the country are, generally, addressed by different agencies in a piecemeal fashion without a legal lead agency.
Transport legislations and regulations used in Ethiopia are generally old for the present situations. However, some revised and new transport legislations are enacted recently. The legal document for the establishment of a National Road Safety Council, and other transport legislations are revised and waiting approval.
In related news the Bureau denied reports that they are in negotiations over a potential new cable car system.
Two weeks ago Capital reported that the US based Doppelmayr began talking with the Addis Ababa Transport bureau about constructing a 5 km- 7km length cable car in the outskirts of Addis Ababa.
However, Aregawi Maru said “there is no point of discussion we have made with the company so far.’’
