CONSTRUCTION of a modern multimillion public secondary school has kicked off at the rural village of Nyamwaga in the Northern Tarime District, Mara Region. African Barrick Gold (ABG) is financing construction of the school which is schedule to consume over 2bn/- upon it’s completion.
Construction of the school is tipped to be one the first ever huge education projects to be funded by ABG in the communities surrounding North Mara Gold Mine, a move that is also expected to improve relationship between local people and Canadian miner. “The school will be built into two phases. The first phase will cost around 908 ml/- and the second phase about 1.3 bn/-“, North Mara Gold Mine Engineer Chambiri Mwita told this news paper at a tour in Nyamwaga village recently.
The first phase will comprise administration block, four classrooms, four teachers houses, eight holes students’ toilet and a two holes staff toilet. While the second phase, Eng Mwita said will include eight classrooms, two teachers houses, library, laboratory, dining hall, additional eight hole toilet and a sickbay. The mining company is using concrete blocks that costs 2.5 US dollars (about 4,000/-) each) to set up the school in one of the remote rural village of Tarime.
“This is our first time to use concrete blocks on a community project and aim is to control quality”, Eng Mwita said. A few days ago key stakeholders including local leaders met in what was described as first site meeting on the project. The meeting also brought together, Tarime district government senior officials, North Mara Gold Mine officials and Gimunta Champion Traders (GCT), a local contractor that has been awarded the multimillion tender by the mine.
Tarime District Council Technical in charge of construction Mr Marwa Mtiba described the project as huge investment citing using of the concrete blocks among other things. “These are high quality blocks. They are usually used for construction of giant buildings in big cities”, Mr Mtiba said. The contractor (GCT) pledged to meet the deadline in completing the first phase which is schedule to end after seven months from now.
By so doing GCT will stand better chance of winning a tender to construct the second phase that will include many additional premises, according to Eng Mwita. Reports had it that ABG officials at North Mara Mine site are closely supervising implementation of the project in a bid to ensure that it meets the deadline and required quality. “Everything is going well and after seven months the first phase buildings will be ready by 100 per cent”, GCT Director Mr John Gimunta told this writer shortly after the site meeting.
Local leaders have welcomed the project pledging full cooperation with the contractor. They want Canadian Ambassador to Tanzania to be involved in a laying an official foundation stone. “ We thank ABG for honouring Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) that we entered with the mine since 1995 and we are requesting Canadian Ambassador to come and lay foundation stone of this school,” Nyamwaga village chairman Mr Sasi Kirigiti said.
The villagers are also suggesting the school that will be accommodating form one to six students to be named Mwalimu Nyerere, the name of the founder of the nation the late Mwalimu Julius Nyerere. Construction of the school would play a significant role to increase science learning opportunities in the lake zone region, according to officials. “This is a good development and construction of the school will increase science learning opportunities for our students”, Tarime Secondary Education Officer Mr Bantaleon Ruiza said.
The school is schedule to open doors early 2014, according to Mr Ruiza. Mr Marc Luyt , a senior official with North Mara Gold Mine expressed satisfaction on the development of the project, pledging full cooperation. “It is exciting to see positive progress happening and I thank Nyamwaga villagers for allowing us to assist the village development,” Mr Marck said during the site visit meeting.
ABG, a leading Tanzanian Gold producer has vowed to execute fully Villages Benefits Implementation Agreements (VBIA) signed between North Mara Gold Mine and the surrounding villages late last year. The mining company has allocated around 26 bn/- to finance community projects in the villages under the deal which has been widely hailed by ordinary people, local leaders as well as Tarime district authorities.
Stakeholders believe that implementation of the VBIA will help to make frequent conflicts between the mine and the surrounding villages a thing of the past. “We promised to implement the agreements and the work has started as you can see, there is construction of new secondary schools and every school will have over 20 classrooms, Sungusungu dispensary has been upgraded into a health centre and it is now a good hospital than even other district hospitals.
Relocation of three public primary schools situated near the mine is also underway. We will fully implement the agreements in period of three years”, ABG’s Vice- President for Corporate Affairs Mr Deo Mwanyika told reporters shortly after Deputy Ministers for Minerals Mr Stephen Masele and his counterpart in charge of Environment in the Vice- President’s Office Mr Charles Kitwanga early this month.
Both ministers hailed the initiatives during their first joint tour into the mine and the surrounding villages. They urged ABG to continue speeding up implementation of the agreements, something which they said would greatly help to reduce tension between the mine and local people. “Today we are witnessing ABG fulfilling it’s promises to the local communities and I hope there will be harmony”, Deputy Minister Kitwanga remarked.
Deputy Minister Masele said: “Iam happy that since morning we have seen a number of water and education projects and more interesting is the fact that there is harmony and local communities have started regarding the mine as a friend”. North Mara Gold Mine has been experiencing recurrent conflicts which critics claim are caused by failure by the mine to hounour several promises given to the surrounding villages several years ago. The mine has passed on the hands of a number of foreigner investors since 2002 when it was officially inaugurated by retired President Benjamin Mkapa.
They included Afrika Mashariki Gold Mine (AMGM), Placer Dome Tanzania And African Barrick Gold. Mid 2010 five civilians were shot death after hundreds of villagers invaded the mine to grab gold sand and clashed with anti-riot police. Since then ABG has been striving to enhance its relations with the local communities with implementation of the VBIA as well as funding short term community projects like supply of safe and clean water to the hundreds of women by using it’s truck on daily basis getting top priority.
But on the other hand frequent invasions have also forced the ABG to construct multimillion wall fence to protect its
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