Developing Liberia’s Aquatic Biomass Amid Incessant Iron Ore Mining

By Syrulwa Somah, PhD

Liberia is no doubt a very rich country in terms of natural resources. It has huge deposits of gold, diamond, iron ore, and numerous rivers, creeks, and streams good for commercial fishing. It has an aquatic biomass that contains various species of crabs, turtles, fishes, alligators, shrimps, frogs, and plants. Yet Liberia has consistently focused many efforts on iron ore mining and raw timber exports than on developing its aquatic biomass for producing fish products, which are as economically profitable as iron ore and timber exports, but less harmful to the environment. Nonetheless, Liberia currently holds the dubious distinction as the world’s 11th largest iron ore producing country due to huge deposits of iron and aluminum, two of world’s most useful metallic elements, when the country has no steel processing plants and remains one of the poorest nations in the world in terms of living standards, education and development. Perhaps, it is now time for Liberia to begin to deemphasize iron ore mining and concentrate more efforts on developing its aquatic biomass for commercial fishing, canned fish products, and other commercial activities before the aquatic biomass is destroyed by the current waves of incessant and unregulated iron ore mining activities in the country. 

The iron ore mining operations in Nimba and Bong counties subsequently built huge water plants to facilitate palletizing, using the St. John and Cavalla Rivers, two of Liberia's principal rivers, as their primary targets. The palletizing operations not only caused massive pollution in the two target rivers, but also created health catastrophes for people living near the rivers. The resultant contamination from iron ore mining and palletizing operations in Liberia greatly, notwithstanding, impacted the Liberian environment in four major ways, including (1) deforestation and mass destruction of biological species; (2) massive pollution of some of Liberia's principal freshwater rivers, (3) destruction of Liberia's aquatic biomass such as crabs, turtles, fishes, alligators, shrimps, frogs, and (4) occupational diseases, safety, and health.

Deforestation and Mass Destruction of Biological Species

The initial phase of iron ore mining and production requires massive deforestation activities such as land clearing, road building, and the destruction of important wildlife species, animal and human habitats, and mountain ranges. In the dense and thick mountain ranges of Bong and Nimba counties, a popular-type of mining activity called opencast and open-pit or open-cut mining processes are used regularly to recover the iron ores of Liberia's virgin mountains, which, oftentimes lead to large-scale deforestation. Open-pit iron ore mines also create large disturbances to the local landscape through massive clearing and reshaping of the topography of an area for many square miles. Large-scale deforestation activities under the guise of development often reduce the local tropical forest area significantly, while the use heavy equipment in mining operations also creates erosion, dust, and fossil fuel emissions for the environment.  Deforestation activity such as road construction can help hunters to easily reach the dense forests to elephants, lions, leopards, hippopotamus, and eagles and other forest animals, which often become easy prey for hunters as these animals migrate from one forest area to another.

Deforestation caused by iron ore mining operations can lead to severe climate changes and weather conditions because mining often encroaches on fragile ecosystems and interferes with hydrological cycle or weather-controlling ability of the mountains being exploited for iron ore. Hydrological cycle refers to the continuous circulation of water within the Earth’s hydrosphere that influences a self- propagating wave in space to combine with electric and magnetic components or solar radiation. In essence, what is usually at stake during any deforestation activity from mining operations is the need to preserve a healthy environment for local livelihoods through the maintenance of biodiversity. Biodiversity, therefore, underpins the environmental services as biodegradation, soil aeration, fertilization and carbon sequestration that are necessary to maintain productivity, stable, healthy environment, upon which every nation, including Liberia, depends.

In Liberia, we ought to change the way we undertake iron ore mining and other such activities that cause deforestation so as not to ruin our aquatic and forest resources unnecessarily. Environmental impact assessment must be part of any new and/or existing concession agreements or else we are bound to pay a very dear price in the not too distant future. In other words, we should not cause more problems for ourselves as we set about to solve employment and other problems. A myopic economic solution, by our historical experiences, are far more costly than well reasoned ones.  My point is we must not turn to only iron ores mining and deforestations only means of economic viability as these sorts of activities are not in our best interest in the long run. And my point is for iron ore mines in Liberia to be operated sensibly and efficiently so as not to cause the type of environment impacts I mentioned earlier. This is why it is necessary that iron ore mining operations throughout Liberia, including the new mining company Mittal Steel, must be subjected concern for stringent regulations to forestall deterioration and other environmental problems in the future.  All of these mines projects create incurable epidemic, deplete and degrade surface water and aquifers, tailings leakage, leaching from dumps, land degradation and large-scale deforestation which must be regulated to ensure that Liberian forestlands, rivers, creeks, steams, and other water resources are duly protected for the future benefits of Liberia.

Controlling Environmental Pollution

I have mentioned that the aquatic biomass of Liberia needs adequate development to facilitate commercial fishing and canned fish productions, but pollution is another residual effect of iron ore mining and timber mining activities that have profound effects on the environment.  Indeed, any cultures or nations that preach domination of nature by imposing human will on the environment through unregulated exploitations will be forced to reap the harvest of calamities on the physical, spiritual, mental health, and social well being of their citizens. For environmental destruction  such as soil erosion, air pollution, and contaminated water not only shorten human lives, destroy homes,  and poison the atmosphere in Liberian towns and communities, but also make Liberia hotter as we are now seeing in Liberia today.  In other words, trees are important to lowering the temperature through shade, as their roots stabilize soil, and prevent erosion by trapping soil that would otherwise become silt. But deforestation creates silt which destroys other aquatic wildlife because it interferes with biochemical oxygen demand or the amount of oxygen required in a system for the breakdown of organic material and for organisms to breathe in our tropical waters. Fish kills, for instance, can happen during these "sag" times, especially fish eggs.  Silt also contributes to our rivers and streams to run slower, thereby contributing to severe flooding that can wash away any roads and bridges.  Hence, trees along our riverbanks hold stream banks in place to protect against flooding and stop silt so that we can have more cold water fish and other aquatic food to eat in our nation.

Dry weather and air pollution due to natural and human causes are also at a crisis point in Liberia. Dry weather not only leads to dusty soils, but also dust particles might in turn lead to dry weather by changing timing in farming and fishing, which a majority of Liberians depends on for protein. After all, when all the trees and fertile grounds are destroyed, we are bound to have a serious health epidemic in Liberia. But more important, Liberia lacks not only paved roads, but also lacks effective emission control. As a result, it has become fashionable for anything with tires to run in Liberia at the expense of public health.  The transportation shortage after the civil war has therefore made vehicle pollution to be primary contributor to pollution problems in Liberia today, particularly environmental issues such as the greenhouse effect. These kinds of uncontrollable emission problems are so rampant in Liberia that they have become potential cancer hazards.

Diesel exhaust alone contains about 41 chemical air toxics that vary from pollutant to pollutant, but are all serious health hazards for cancer, immune system disorders, and reproductive problems. Discrete solid or aerosol particles are pollutants emitted through the vehicle exhaust system or tail pipe, which are not regulated in Liberia.  Liberians are therefore at risk of not controlling these pointed and non-pointed sources of pollution which can contribute to asthma and other lung diseases from air pollution.  Admittedly, air pollution cannot be overlooked in any re-construction efforts in post-conflict Liberia, as it continues to disable more than 1.1 billion people worldwide and kill between 2.7 million to 3.0 million others annually. At least ninety percent of those who died regularly from air pollution live in developing nations like Liberia. Moreover, acid drainage is a potentially severe pollution hazard associated with iron ore mining and can be difficult to predict. Acid drainage occurs when pyrite and other sulfide minerals, upon exposure to oxygen and water, oxidize to create ferrous ions and sulfuric acid. Catalyzed by bacteria, the ferrous ions react further with oxygen, producing hydrated iron oxide that result in major pollution.

Developing Liberia’s Aquatic Biomass

 It is inevitable that waste materials from the iron ore mining operations not only pollute major Liberian rivers such as St. John, Cavalla, and Farmington, but also undermine the aquatic biomass as well. In fact, studies have shown that fish, crabs, and turtles and other aquatic species found within the Liberian aquatic biomass are often contaminated by waste materials from iron ore that eating fish and crabs from such polluted water is hazardous for people living along these rivers. Moreover, during the dry season in Liberia, rivers and stream near mining areas usually experience significant increases in the bacterial load from waste materials and polluted air from iron ore mines. Hence, it is very important for the environmental regulatory agency in Liberia to monitor and regulate more forcefully the level of pollution and   industrial and biologic wastes that can safely be discharged into the rivers without causing severe harm to the aquatic biomass and the health of people in and around the mining communities. The introduction of stricter laws and policies requiring a high level of waste treatment and stressing the importance of self-purification of our rivers would work more in the present and future interests of Liberia than anything else.

In 1977, for example, the U.S. government passed into law the “Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act” that required operators of mining companies in the U.S. to curtail disturbances and adverse impact on fish, wildlife and related environmental values and achieve enhancement of such resources where applicable.  Normally, mining regulations in developed nations like the United States and Sweden require strict monitoring of water discharges into streams or lakes, but the lack of rigid safety regulations and enforcement mechanisms in Liberia underscores an aura of poor national policy and indifference to the plights of Liberian workers exposed regularly to pollution and other effects of iron ore mining in Liberia.   Indeed, in spite of being the 11th largest producer of iron ore in the world, Liberia has always been faced with economic cataclysm and the mass of the Liberian has continued to languish in poverty due to poor leadership. Therefore, it is now time that iron ore mining companies in Liberia take full responsibility for monitoring the contamination because the extent to which a river is able to self- purify depends on several factors including the character of the river and its climatic setting, which are offset more often than not toxic wastes, water and air pollution, and other effects of incessant iron ore mining operations.

In essence, the unrestricted dumping of dangerous mine wastes or  foreign substances such as industrial toxic wastes in rivers in mining areas across Liberia often interfere with the country’s biomass's metabolism,  induce organogenesis failures, conatal/congenital abnormalities, body dysmorphic changes and create huge health problems and public disasters that no amount of money can mitigate in the future.  Often people in mining communities in Nimba, Bong, and Grand Bassa are exposed to and forced to swim in, drink, and consume fishes from the contaminated rivers, creeks, estuaries, and streams due to ill-treated or non-treated of chemical wastes and debris from these mining companies that regularly seep into the ground water and soil. As a result, many Liberian families in these mining communities, especially women and children, are particularly susceptible to water pollution due to the role they play in the family, which involves contact with water sources for performing the household chores like collecting water, washing clothes, utensils, and bathing children.

Now, in order to develop the aquatic biomass in Liberia amid incessant iron ore mining operations, the Liberian government needs to identify rivers and ponds throughout the country for large scale commercial fishing and fish-cum-livestock farming.  These large scale commercial fishing and fish-cum-livestock farming can serve not only as sources for additional revenue generation in Liberia, but also as development strategies to keep Liberian rivers and streams from unnecessary industrial wastes dumping and contamination. The government could undertake these projects in many ways, but one practical way is to promote donors buy-in and investment by Liberians in the Diaspora and provide training for select population groups in Liberia to learn how to live on ponds or integrate fish-cum-livestock farming into their daily lives.  Liberians should own these fish-cum-livestock projects and seek long term investment to subsidize the cost of modifying the ponds for this purpose. And in the process, Liberians should seek to combine lake and pond design and water quality management to produce commercial fishing in Liberia as both a source of sustainable food and trade.

Indeed, commercial fishing for sustainable food and trade forms the pillars of aquatic biomass development in places like China, the Philippines, and Hungary, and Liberia can do the same. For example, between 1990 and 1997, China was ranked one in the world in fishery output, producing 28.13 million tons of fish in 1996 alone.  The development of fisheries in China created more job opportunities for many people in China’s fishery regions and rural areas, including the landmark 1996 employment record of 12.08 million laborers in fisheries production. Similarly, in 1974 fish production in the Philippines claimed to 1.3 million tons through effective use of that country’s aquatic biomass, while in Hungary, the total catch of the Hungarian fishery sector stood at 28,633 metric tons, of which 20,977 ton was sold into the markets, and the reminder used as broodstock and restocking for fish ponds and fish-cum-livestock farms.

Mind you, I am not arguing that Liberians are not fishing, nor do I think that Liberia can compete with the fishery outputs of China, the Philippines, and Hungary overnight.  But my point is that the average annual fishery production in Liberia is quite low for the country's rivers and other water sources, so the country needs to establish an Economic Development Plan that will acquire the latest fishery production technology to increase fish production in Liberia by at least two or threefold over present production levels. Besides, we need to change our fishing strategies in Liberia from a focus on simply catching fish regardless of size, to a focus on  a special economic and technical sector that includes catching, breeding, processing, logistics mechanics, servicing, trading in fisheries on the open markets. For example, in 2000 aquatic exports of Vietnam reached US$ 1.478 billion, according to the World Trade Organization.  Vietnam’s fishery industry employed in excess of 500,000 people, and Vietnam became a major supplier of fish to estimated 60 nations and territories worldwide. And, given its abundant water resources, Liberia has equal chance as China, the Philippines, Hungary, and Vietnam to develop its aquatic biomass by emphasizing  fishery production of its diverse and reach fisheries, including crustaceans, fish, and molluscs through the establishment of fish ponds and fish-cum-livestock farms in selected areas of Liberia.

 In other words, instead of everyone one in Liberia farming rice, some people can go into aquatic culture which is yet to be developed in our nation. We need a very strong aquatic culture in the new Liberia. And the way to do this is to start from somewhere by helping and teaching our people to build or modify some of the natural creeks and streams into “Ponds for breeders” for fishery production. And I believe that if the world sees that we are serious about developing in this new Liberia freshwater fish culture part of our top priorities to put our people back to work, some one will hear our cry and come in to help. In fact, the United Nations Development Programme and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations are currently working with Iran to develop their fishery industry, so if we in Liberia need only to ask for help and we will get it. This is what China, the Philippines, and the other countries did, and today, they are producing fish and putting their people back to work. Hence, I am proposing herewith a Liberia Economic Development Plan (LEDP) for aquatic biomass development in Liberia that will seek to limit deforestation in Liberia to increase and conserve the country’s fishery resources by intensifying fish stocking in inland waters and protecting the spawning grounds of fishes. The LEDP should also seek to classify the nation’s available swamplands according to their suitability or fitness for districts, county and family fishpond development purposes, and contact USAID, national banks in Liberia, the EU, and ECOWAS to provide small loans to the Liberian-owned fishery industry members. The granting of these loans for the development of fishponds and leaseholders of public lands for developing fishponds are very important to Liberia’s economic development. Besides, the LEDP should ensure that the government, county officials, and district leaders make available public lands throughout Liberia for the development of commercial fishponds and promotion of artisanal fishing activities. The LEDP should also provide facilities for practical training programs for potential fish pond owners and fish-cum-livestock farmers as well as potential extension technicians for these aquatic biomass development projects.

Generally, the water resources of a country are a key pillar of aquatic biomass development, since Water is essential for all life forms. Plants, animals, and humans cannot survive for very long without water, especially given the scientific fact humans can survive about 3 to 4 weeks without food, but only about 5 to 7 days without water. In fact, a little over 10% that a loss of water in the human body can cause instant death, although the human brain is 77% water, the human blood is 82% water, and the human lungs are is 90% water. In other words, while many years societies across the globe have viewed water bodies as the solution to disposal of unwanted substances, all human beings have a moral and spiritual responsibility to care for our water resources ensure the survival of both plant and human species. It is even said that close to 500 million people in our contemporary world live in "water-stressed" areas (places with fewer rivers and water resources), and the number is likely to rise to 3 billion by 2025. Hence, Liberia stands to gain more in the future from development of its aquatic biomass in terms of plentiful fisheries by utilizing the country’s abundant mangrove forests, lakes, lagoons, other coastal and inner water resources than any attempts at iron ore mining, oil exploration, or timber exportations will do. And these are possible because, apart from the water, the other resources can be easily depleted with severe consequences to the environment.

Occupational Diseases, Safety and Health

The history of iron ore mining in Liberia is mostly associated not with national social development and economic growth, but with large scale mining pits situated near residential homes and agricultural fields. These mining pits often served not only as sources for  storing contaminated water and debris, but also as death traps for community livestocks, sometimes women and children, who continued to accidentally fall  into these open mine pits and drown or get severely  injured. These mine pits are a direct result of the use of the “opencast” method of mineral mining, which is banned in the United States and other advanced countries because of the method’s adverse impact on the environment, but which is commonly used in Liberia because most of the iron ore in Liberia is not easily accessible by other means. Hence, in cases where the ore body lies buried in deep underground rocks, opencast mining is employed so that the vertical shaft might go down several thousand feet to retrieve ore deposits through horizontal tunnels on the shaft. Almost all of Liberia's ores were mined from opencast method, which relies mostly on the size, structure, and accessibility of ore lying close to the earth's surface.

Ideally, iron ore mining operations in Liberia create a lot of environmental and occupational health problems in as discussed earlier industrial solid wastes being dumped into Liberian rivers to kill off the aquatic biomass of fishes and other water species, and now this whole business about abandoned open pit mines serving as death traps to women, children, and livestocks in several Liberian communities. These mining operations also present health and safety problems in the form of pollution, falls, mine dusts, loud noise, and seismic shock from blasting, plant tailing, and so forth. In other words, there are a lot of issues in mining operations in general, and mining operations in Liberia in particular, that involve accident and repetitive work activities such as Carpal Tunnel Syndrome, caused by too much lifting, pushing, typing or some such repetitive activity. These disorders are classified as Work-Related Musoskeletal Disorders (WRMD), Ergonomic-Related Injuries (ERI), Cumulative Trauma Disorders (CTDs) Repetitive Motion Injuries (RMIs), or Repetitive Strain Injury (RIS) which are a broad generic terms for a variety of injuries that show up as pain, swelling, stiffness and/or numbness in the hands, soft tissues of the body, wrists, back, or upper extremities resulting from repeated movements which impact the body.

In addition, it is clear that health and safety problems abound in  every workplace where chemical is used because every workplace chemical has the potential to cause adverse functioning of the human organism, so those who work in mining operations often tend to  develop pneumoconiosis (also called mine workers' pneumoconiosis), dust disease, miner's asthma or black lung disease caused by inhalation of mine dust when employees are not trained to wear personal protection equipment (PPE).  These are other chemical-induced diseases at mining sites that can affect hormones, fertility, and libido in both men and women, thus preventing conception, if toxic enough to interfere with normal fetal growth, resulting in miscarriages, stillbirths, or premature and low-birth-weight infants.

Indeed, what we need in the new Liberia is a strong and enforceable safety and health act that will regulate not just mining operations but protect mine workers in the country as well. For example, before passage of the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA) of 1970, hazardous worksites in the United States had disabled 2.25 million Americans in 1969, and that workplace diseases, in mining a non-mining areas had caused 100,000 deaths (Rubin, 1978, 40), let alone the costs associated with employee inquiries and revenue generation. Hence, safety is money that will not only benefit the Liberian people but also the mining companies themselves, so all mining companies in Liberia must be required by law to safety training and inspections on site, in addition onsite inspections by Labor Ministry health and safety compliance personnel. But to facilitate this goal, the Liberian Labor Ministry will have to set up regional area offices throughout Liberia near mining concessionaries staffed by a labor director and a number of compliance officers for purposes of conducting spot inspections of mining operations.

These spot inspections will be important in the near future in promoting health and safety in iron ore mining operations in Liberia because currently there are no reforestation projects for affected areas such as Nimba and Bong counties where roads and bridges built to facilitate mining operations are now clear death traps, while huge pits of mine wastes or “tailing ponds” in Bong Mines are an open source of danger to the communities living around these mine sites. Creeks and rivers polluted by tailing ponds and other iron ore waste dumps must be cleaned up, and efforts must be made to fill and close all open mine pits to avoid risk to human and animals. Mechanism must also be put in place  to facilitate public consultation or participation by impacted communities in conducting environmental impact studies of iron ore mining on these communities, as common minerals and elements found in tailing ponds are usually arsenic, with cadmium, hydrocarbons, sulfur, mercury, radioactive materials, barite, calcite, fluorite, and other elements. Generally, it is very important for the Liberian EPA to exercise its power to regulate mining and solid wastes from mining activities in Liberia, while the Labor Ministry intensifies its labor compliance inspections. 

Conclusion and New Ways to Mine Iron Ore in Liberia

Thousands of tons of iron ores are manipulated in Liberia each time iron ore unloading, preparation, and handling operations are performed. These iron ore operations usually produce huge layers of dust particles, noise, and other forms of vibrations that greatly impact the environment in Liberia, let alone humans, plants, and rivers or other water resources near these mining sites. Hence, as these rivers and creeks are polluted through toxic waste dumps from mining operations, fishes and other aquatic creatures within the Liberian aquatic biomass are severely threatened. The Liberian aquatic biomass also contains various species of crabs, turtles, fishes, alligators, shrimps, frogs, and plants that can be exploited for commercial purposes, so there is an urgent need in Liberia to preserve and develop the aquatic biomass as a source of additional revenues to the country rather than sit supinely by and let the aquatic biomass be destroyed by harmful toxic wastes from mining operations as described earlier.

in Liberia today, the development of the aquatic biomass is not a major consideration given that the Liberian government and mining company officials in Liberia have been trying very high to drum up support for iron mining due to the rising demand for iron ore on the international market as a result of Chinese economy booms, which is partly responsible for the current sharp rise in world market price for by 70%. So it is understandable why the government was particular about renegotiating and rectifying the iron ore mining deal with Mittal Steel not long ago to resume iron ore mining operations in the mining sites previously operated by LAMCO in Yekepa, Nimba County, and Buchanan, Grand Bassa County. But we need in Liberia need to learn from the past, as previous mining operations in places like Yekepa, Bong Mines, and Bomi Hills have left behind large mining pits around our houses and agricultural fields, which have gradually been filled with contaminated water and debris.

At these mining sites, basic social services such as electricity and pipe-borne water supplies and the construction of roadways, housing, schools, and clinics for the local populations were never crucial part of mining contracts in Liberia, so the local populations around these mining operations got to suffer from the effects of polluted rivers, creeks, and streams and degraded environments years after the mining companies have ceased operation. In addition, mining operations in Liberia have always sought to maximize their profit margins such that no reforestation projects were earmarked to restore normal life to communities affected through these mining operations. Generally, roads and bridges built for mining operations were not durable such that they often became instant death traps to the public a few years after their constructions. Therefore, iron ore mining operations throughout Liberia, including the recent questions over Mittel Steel’s intentions, had been and will continue to remain a major environmental concern for years to come unless stringent regulations are put into place to help circumvent further deterioration, as all of these mining projects create incurable epidemic, deplete and degrade surface water and aquifers, tailings leakage, leaching from dumps, land degradation, and large-scale deforestation.

Saving the Liberian environment must therefore be the new fundamental organizing objective, the hub of the wheel around which all policy decisions about mining operations in the new Liberia should revolve.  Liberia should not let economic necessities to be the only overwhelming criteria for awarding mining contracts to companies to mine iron ore in Liberia for 20 or more years without first performing valid research on the long-term impact on the environment and the economic outcomes to the country. For an environmental study should be a precondition for the Liberian government to award iron ore mining contract to any company, since iron ore mining contributes to the deforestation of Liberia's forest resources, and poses a great danger to preserving the Liberian aquatic biomass and the aquatic life of fishes in the very rivers where the wastewater of the iron ore are discharged on a regular basis.

Indeed, as a nation and people, we are ought to be deeply concerned about the debilitating impact of unregulated mining in Liberia, regardless of our political affiliation or who is the president in power. In the new Liberia we should be creative with our developmental options by confronting the critical environmental problems facing the new Liberia with respect to iron ore mining, and its latent economic, social and ecological consequences or impact on the Liberian nation. Hence, a focused approach on reversing the continuing damage to our aquatic biomass should be a key consideration in our national socio-economic development drives in Liberia.  It is also important to recognize that we have the option in Liberia to leave our forest resources intact by promoting aquatic culture that could counter current trends in deforestation, forest degradation, and unregulated mining. As a people, we must move to sustainable development to avoid any kind of environmental catastrophes associated with depletion of natural resources and the destruction of air, water, and natural environment.

Unrestricted dumping of dangerous mine wastes into Liberia’s waters can cause public disasters in the future that no amount of money can mitigate. We ought to be proactive in Liberia about our symbiotic environment by not permitting mining companies to operate in Liberia without specific guidelines about environmental degradation, especially the control of the “washing” of iron ores extracted from our mountains that pollute our environment and ground waters. We must not let a few people and companies to ruin our environment in the name of economic recovery because we all share the soil, water, air, and fruits of Liberia. As there are no guarantees to anything in this world, we should not assume that those who come from the outside to exploit our environment will be fair, just, and balanced in protecting our environment without any initiative on our part. We must act and act now to protect our environment through legislations and related national policies.

In our drives toward national socioeconomic development in Liberia, we should maintain our niche in all dimensions, from environmental protection, good governance, and equal distribution of wealth. We must undertake development activities within the context of when and how we interact with each other and the habitat around us.  Everything doesn’t have to go wrong in Liberia. Let us take a lead in something positive for nation, our name, and our generation to come. Let us develop Liberia’s aquatic biomass, promote aquatic culture and leave the forest and mountain intact to support future generation, and let us ensure that an independent company conducts an annual environmental impact assessment of mining operations in Liberia for the health and safety of our nation and people. But, above all, let us develop the aquatic biomass of Liberia to engage in commercial fishing to generate additional revenue for Liberia while keeping our environment for pollution and degradation. This, I think, is only a very common sense and patriotic thing to do.

Syrulwa Somah, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor of Environmental and Occupational Safety and Health at NC A&T State University in Greensboro, North Carolina. He is author of several books, including, The Historical Resettlement of Liberia and Its Environmental Impact, Christianity, Colonization and State of African Spirituality, and Nyanyan Gohn-Manan: History, Migration & Government of the Bassa (a book about traditional Bassa leadership and cultural norms published in 2003). Somah is also the Executive Director of the Liberian History, Education & Development, Inc. (LIHEDE), a nonprofit organization based in Greensboro, North Carolina. He can be reached at: somah@ncat.edu; lihede2003@yahoo.com