Méouane, June 11 (APS) – Tension dropped a notch in Taïba Ndiaye and Méouane, with the lifting, on Monday, of the blockades erected by a collective representing the populations impacted by the activities of the extraction and processing sites of phosphoric acid from the Chemical Industries of Senegal (ICS) in these two municipalities in the Thiès region (west), to demand a better compensation system from this company.
This lull comes as a solution is expected from the meeting planned for Tuesday between the Minister of the Interior, Jean-Baptiste Tine, a collective of impacted people and leaders of the ICS, to reconcile them.
The two sides have been in conflict since May 28. The dispute concerns compensation for residents living near the phosphoric acid extraction and processing sites of the Chemical Industries of Senegal.
The blockades erected by the members of this collective resulted in the cessation of ICS mining activities in the extraction and processing sites of phosphoric acid, an important export product used in the manufacture of fertilizers, declared last Wednesday the company’s communications department.
“Since Saturday June 1, 2024, the railway line connecting [ces] sites has been blocked. This prevents the evacuation of the phosphoric acid and therefore causes a gradual cessation of the manufacturing of this product,” worried the ICS.
It was to be feared, in the long term, a deterioration of the situation “gradually bringing the company’s activities to a halt”, according to the same Source.
Abdallah Tall, the mayor of Mboro
Tension has fallen in the district of Méouane since the lifting of the blockades on Monday, after the visit of the prefect of Tivaouane, Mamadou Guèye.
The activities of ICS, a very significant company in Senegalese industry, concern mining, the production of phosphoric acid and fertilizers.
Mining activity takes place in two phases, the first of which concerns exploration, during which studies are carried out to analyze the specifications of the ore in specific areas, in order to know whether or not it is suitable for mining. exploitation, the second phase.
A review of the compensation system requested
Then, depending on the mine expansion plan and the investment decision, the areas in question are qualified or not for exploitation, which corresponds to the ore extraction phase.
The compensation relating to the first part of the 2023 exploration campaign is at the origin of the misunderstanding.
Those affected are asking ICS to apply the same rates to exploitation and exploration. These two phases correspond respectively to land acquisition and the research phase.
This complaint from local residents is rejected by the mining company, confirms Sandrina Gomes, head of communications and sustainable development at ICS.
“What those affected are demanding is not being done in any mining company in Senegal or in the world,” she maintains.
Cheikh Sall, the mayor of Méouane
“The ICS have never committed to acquiring areas that are just the subject of exploration surveys [avec des résultats incertains]. So, they cannot commit to paying the same amounts as for the areas acquired a few months ago for mining purposes,” argues Ms. Gomes.
The last acquisition, as well as the survey campaign, the subject of the dispute, took place almost at the same time. But they are not of the same nature, she told APS, adding that the latest acquisition and the survey campaign have different implications.
The ICS communications and sustainable development manager ensures that owners who cultivated their land can continue to do so during exploration.
“Forcing mining companies to invest in exploitation, without an exploration phase, would represent a serious risk for the development of the mining sector,” she warns, arguing that “it is not possible to invest to acquire resources whose quality and quantity are not known”.
In the present case, the collective is demanding from the ICS the payment of 756 million CFA francs, for all the survey operations that they carried out in the communes of Méouane and Taïba Ndiaye.
The mining company, as far as it is concerned, is offering the sum of 344 million.
In the exploration phase, the company must pay, in addition to the scale of 1,050,000 CFA francs per hectare, compensation based on drilling holes and damage caused to crops.
For the exploitation phase, compensation is the subject of tripartite negotiation (ICS, impacted people and territorial administration), sanctioned by the signing of an agreement for the definitive transfer of land use rights from the impacted people to the ICS.
According to the company’s communications manager, following a first blockage last May, the ICS had exceptionally proposed, to resolve the situation, to allow those affected to still cultivate for two agricultural seasons, those of 2023 and 2024.
This, in addition to the payment of the usual expenses linked to the exploration phase and a fixed price, to level the furrows.
Sandrina Gomes maintains that “the ICS proposal is fair”. Ms. Gomes affirms that the company she represents is the one that pays “the highest expenses in Senegal”.
“This explains, despite a fourteen-day blockage and the colossal losses for all parties concerned, that the ICS do not vary in their position,” she points out.
“No one wins in this standoff”
The spokesperson for the collective of those affected, Matar Thiam, protests against the rigidity of the company’s posture.
His camp let go following the intervention of the administrative authorities, he argues.
“We stopped our protest movement to respond to the Minister of the Interior, because the very reassuring speech from the prefect of Tivaouane relieved almost all of those affected,” he declared.
“He knew how to talk to us well. Because we are very responsible people, we had to remove all the barriers,” he told the APS.
The mayor of Mboro, Abdallah Tall, an ICS executive, like Cheikh Sall, who heads the Méouane municipal council, welcomes this wind of appeasement.
Mr. Tall, also president of the Association of Mayors of the Méouane district, believes that “no one wins in this standoff between the two parties”. “We must continue the dialogue, because the populations for whom we act welcome this lull, which will lead, I am sure, to a mutually winning horizon,” he predicts.
Members of the local residents’ collective impacted by the activity of the ICS
The commune of Méouane is the capital of the district of the same name, in which the town halls of Mboro, Taïba Ndiaye and Darou Khoudoss are located, which houses the factory.
Kène Diop, a notable from the village of Ndomor and retired from the ICS, encourages the two parties, whose interests are linked, to “hold periodic meetings to avoid certain accumulated frustrations”.
ICS, long considered a flagship of Senegalese industry, was on the verge of bankruptcy in 2014, when the Asian giant Indorama bought 78% of its capital.
Since then, an improvement has been noted, which has generated new demands.
From January 23, the ICS Workers Union (SYNTICS) observed a one-week work stoppage to demand salary increases for the benefit of some 1,200 agents. The latter demand an improvement in their living conditions.
After tough negotiations, under the auspices of the governor of Thiès, Oumar Mamadou Baldé, and other mediators, the company agreed to pay 2 billion 850 million FCA francs.
SYNTICS demanded 6 billion 290 million, which represents, according to its leaders, 1% of the profit made by the ICS over the last three years. The company’s mining agreement will end next September.
MKB/ADI/BK/ESF
