By: Ramsey N Singbeh Jr
Email: director@news.throngtalk.com
Contact: +231772641146 / 880147358
In a deliberate attempt to show disregard for the Liberian Government and endanger the lives of Liberians, a Chinese Company (Lee Group of Enterprise) situated and operated in Bong County is said to be defying the mandate of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to provide an alternative water source or safe drinking water for residents in towns and villages along the Nyanfor River.
The company’s act of refusing to make an inch move in the direction of the government’s order appears to many people as challenging the government and being strong with its activities which make the only source of water unsafe for the citizens using it.
Liberia Environmental Protection Agency Executive Director, Dr Emmanuel K. Urey YarKpawolo
The EPA’s mandate which was issued in August to September of 2024 against Lee Group was decided after the government’s agency investigated and found the company liable of polluting the Nyanfor River which is the major source of water by the said residents.
This happened after the victims who have for a very long time decried the inhumane act by Lee Group could no longer withstand the maltreatment cried out for help accusing the company of dumping waste inclusive of toxic chemical harmful to their survival into the river from its upper end where their operations are carried on.
Acting Administrator of the Nyanforla Community, William B. Singbah
The River according to the Acting Administrator of the Nyanforla Community, William B. Singbah is used by so many communities, naming some of them as Yarkpazuah Town, David Town, El-Town, David Barh Town etc.
Throngtalk News Bureau established that residents from towns and villages in Bong also use the river which is a common boundary between Bong and Margibi Counties.
According to Mr Singbah, since the EPA’s mandate was given to the company, not a single day that anyone representing the company has ever been around to make efforts in giving them safe drinking water as they are still using the water to cook, drink, wash and take bath while Lee Group of Enterprises continues its pollution of the river.
He said they do not have any other source of water apart from the Nyanfor River, stressing the need for a doctor to go and check them to know what the pollution of the water is causing their health. Expressing his disappointment in the company, he called on the government of Liberia through the EPA to still see the need to go to their aid.
It can be recalled the residents in 2024 alleged that the Lee Group of Enterprises which operates a rubber processing plant in Corneh Farm of Salala District in Bong County on the border of Margibi County rubber processing plant is discharging chemical waste and human feces from its septic tank into the Nyanfor River.
Martha David, A Resident Washing In The Nyanfor River
Efforts by Throngtalk News Bureau to hear from the side of the company did not materialize as the company created bureaucracy and later informed our reporter through the company’s security that the entire top management team was absent from the company at that moment, urging that returning at another time would be necessary.
Before then, a worker of the company had informed our investigation that the human resource manager of the company was in office but the security at gate of the company’s administrative building after a consultation referred the reporter to the other security personnel on the other side of the company.
Partial View Of Lee Group Of Enterprise Inc Situated In Corneh Farm, Lower Bong County
Meanwhile, as the Lee Group of Enterprises takes the government’s mandate for granted, further action is necessary by the EPA to ensure that the citizens health and well-being are protected as no one can tell what the level of damage is being caused by the toxic chemical waste to the decrying residents.
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