Date of publication: May 31, 2009
Source: Public Agenda
[Please note that Dave Zirin is incorrectly identified as an ILRF staff member in this article. Zirin does NOT work at ILRF. He is an independent sports journalist. To read Zirin's article referenced here, please click here [2].]
The nation’s first major foreign investment, Firestone, has often stood accused of inflicting deadly injury to the human person. From charges of forced labor, bad labor practices to bad investment practices, the world’s once biggest rubber plantation hardly spends a single day of its 83 years of business in the country without inflicting one unbearable pain or another upon ordinary Liberians. Despite an avalanche of tears and protests, Firestone’s “cruelty”, as others describe it is not getting any better. Even now, citizens in Firestone-held areas are not ceasing their lamentations for what they consider the company’s “toxic-driven massacre” taking place on the daily basis, with casualty figures prominently high amongst women and children. Though the Company invariably denies these allegations, a weekend reportorial tour by Editor-In-Chief J. Lyndon Ponnie found unbearable environmental and health situations for which a Liberian civil society group, Green Advocates, is threatening a law suit.
In the last couple of months, Firestone has issued a horde of advertisements painting the picture of improving its social service delivery and other corporate commitments to its employees who have long survived a degrading human condition under draconian labor practices.
The apparent avert-bearing brags of the world’s leading rubber company come since its advent 1926, about 83 years ago, a period characterized only by the exportation of latex.
Besides charges of bad labor practice, forced labor and other inhuman corporate policies, for it has faced various civil tribunals, Firestone has also come under serious criticism for environmental degradation, particularly caused by toxic liquids that its latex-purification machinery spews and inundates into the Farmington River.
A suit against Firestone has been lingering in the United States of America, the origin of the Company.
After environmental groups including Green Advocates mounted pressure on the company to halt the dumping of toxic waste into nearby communities, Firestone promised to cleanup the area.
But just one year later, Firestone has diverted its toxic waste this time causing damage to the various streams in and around its operational area.
Now the citizens of one of the several villages affected by toxic waters, Kpanyan Town, have alarmed, stating that toxic contents being diverted into their creeks by Firestone, is causing sicknesses that often lead to death.
The citizens are petitioning the Environmental Lawyers of Liberia, Green Advocates, to represent their interest in stopping Firestone from “Killing them”.
During a tour of the affected areas including Division 45, a team of journalists that was taken to the area by representatives of Kpanyan and Green Advocates, were confronted with the pollution and its toxic effect.
The hazard created by the Firestone toxic in the communities is so severe that one does not have to be an environmental expert to see and feel the damage done by Firestone.
The team of journalists that visited the area over the weekend had to quickly leave Division 45 due to effect of toxic wastes flowing through the pipes and pouring into the streams.
Some of the journalists began experiencing the impact, including respiratory difficulties and running noses.
Dan Adomitis, an official of Firestone sometimes ago told a US media institution that Firestone is currently making a substantial investment to construct a new wastewater treatment plant to ensure that any water discharged from its operations will be re-routed away from the Farmington River, through equalization and clarification tanks, and into constructed wetlands for treatment.
This project, he said, was under construction and would meet the environmental standards for water quality in the United States or any other developed country.
Adomitis also stated that Firestone was committed to protecting the health and welfare of its employees.
Firestone Liberia, he said, uses common fertilizers and other products to nurture the trees. These products, according to him are used in a safe and effective manner.
“We will continue to operate in a manner that focuses on and improves the safety and health of our employees and our Liberian neighbors,” the Firestone official said.
The International Labor Rights Fund has filed a lawsuit against the Firestone Natural Rubber Co., but Adomitis said the fact of a filing does not mean that the claims contained in a lawsuit are truthful or accurate.
Dave Zirin of the International Labor Rights Fund in reaction to the Firestone official said official policy of the company doesn't match plantation reality. Zirin said it's on the environment that Adomitis really tips his hand. He said Firestone's wastewater treatment plant comes after 81 years of dumping toxic waste into rivers used by the Liberian people for bathing, fishing and drinking.
“Now the area around the Farmington River is home to a host of health problems. The meticulously documented truth is that toxic-waste dumping has been regular practice for years,” he said.
The fact that the Liberian Environmental Protection Agency--a government organization--cited Firestone is particularly damning, given the very sweet relationship between Firestone and the government.
He indicated that Firestone was not just polluting the environment, but was also engaged in abusing child labor. Far from unfounded allegations, affidavits are readily available from child laborers who toiled on the Firestone plantation.
Latest discovery of pipes pumping toxic waste into streams being used by residents in and around the plantation for drinking has reawaken the allegation against the American company of not just destroying the waters of Liberia, but causing damage to the soil that is being toiled by the residents of the area for survival. It is not clear whether Firestone obtained permit from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to divert its waste into the stream in Division 45. EPA officials could not readily be contacted.
An elder of Kpanyan Town, Wilfred Davies, expressed rage for Firestone gross disregard for the residents of the area.
Davies told a visiting team of journalists that Kpanyan Town existed before Firestone came to Liberia in 1926.
He said, “We called you here to see the suffering we are going through in the hands of Firestone.”
Wilfred Davies indicated that after several complaints Firestone managed to build a few hand pumps in the area to substitute for the damage it caused to their drinking water.
The town elder said when the officials of Firestone went to dedicate the hand pumps, they could not even drink the water from the pumps because, apparently, they were not sure the water they were providing the villagers was safe for human consumption.
He said the residents have also refused to drink it due to the proximity to the contaminated streams.
Elder Davies narrated that three persons died months ago allegedly after drinking from the creeks. He also said others are still sick from drinking the polluted water.
“This is a complete massacre,” he said. “We want the world to know that massacres are ongoing on in our villages, not from guns but from Firestone-polluted streams.”
In Ma Zoe Town one of the villages comprising Kpanyan Town, a female resident, Tenneh Gbutuah, showed her teenage daughter who she said is suffering from continuous running stomach from drinking the water from the area.
She said, “Firestone only came here to kill us while our government is only watching the show.”
She called on Government to act and to act quickly or it will be too late.
She said something must be done to stop Firestone’s aggression against poor and defenseless people.
The Chief Campaigner of Green Advocates, Alfred Brownell, said he had gone to the area to see and know the problems of the affected residents.
Brownell said his group has been battling Firestone to ensure the right of the people to conductive environmental conditions.
He expressed disappointment over the fact that Firestone, which had agreed to divert toxic wastes from Farmington and clean up the waters, has again chosen to divert their killer wastes into the streams which thousands of villagers rely on for survival.
He said his organization is working to determine the fullness of the claims of the villagers after which he would pursue litigation against Firestone in the interest of the impoverished people.
“How can a company dump its wastes on the poor villagers in such an unsavory condition,” he alarmed.