Water tanks are being trucked in to help thousands of people in the Solomon Islands province of Guadalcanal who are living downstream from a dangerously full mine tailings dam.
Heavy rains in recent weeks have filled the dam with its highly toxic sediment to bursting point and communities are potentially in danger if they draw water from waterways downstream.
The chairman of the Gold Ridge Community and Landowners Association Dick Douglas says all villages must have water tanks before water is pumped from the dam into the Metapona river.
"We have to install the tanks first and when all the tanks have been installed by all communities then we have to put the water-trucking into the tanks. So that they refill and fill up the tanks then we can discharge the water"
Mr Douglas says the community and landowners are only agreeing to the untreated discharge of water as an emergency measure and are still demanding a treatment plant be built.
The over-full tailings dam facility at the Gold Ridge Gold Mine on Guadalcanal in Solomon Islands. January 2015. At the time this was captured the water level was one metre from the brink with 3 months to go in the wet season. Photo: copyright Dr Matthew Allen - Australian National University
