President backs La Misère residents over pollution claims |29 July 2010

This follows a meeting yesterday with the 15-member committee representing residents who are claiming compensation from the building contractor Ascon.

“The full weight of the state is behind the committee,” said Mr Michel.

“I have ordered that all Ascon workers’ GOPs [gainful occupation permits] are cancelled today. They will not be allowed to continue building work, and the head of Ascon has been asked to come to Seychelles to continue discussions.”

The President said the government will take the lead in ensuring that residents’ rights are protected, and a bi-partisan committee has been set up to continue talks with Ascon.

The new group includes the original members of the La Misère residents’ committee, as well as Minister Joel Morgan, attorney-general Ronny Govinden and other members of government who will keep up the pressure on Ascon to reach an out-of-court settlement.

The residents are demanding fair compensation from Ascon for the trauma, material and health damage caused by pollution of their water supply. 

Mr Michel said that after six months of negotiations, Ascon has made a grossly inadequate offer to each household affected in the incident, which was caused by its negligence.

“The compensation offer is ridiculous. La Misère residents have suffered too much,” he said. “Throughout these negotiations the government has done its best to ensure that the people of La Misère who were affected by the water pollution get fair and just compensation from Ascon. We have spared no effort to bring this matter to a satisfactory solution.

“It is regrettable that Ascon has failed to treat this matter with the seriousness that it merits, and in the process has caused deep frustration among the affected residents of La Misère.”

The residents asked the President to take up their case and intervene to protect their rights. They invited him to visit homes at La Misère to see the scope of the problems they are facing.

Mr Morgan said he expects the issue to be resolved soon now that the owners of the construction firm have been told to come and hold talks with the government.

He said Ascon’s 3,000 or so workers will be confined within their quarters on Zone 21, being allowed out only for shopping and other essential trips.

He said other contractors involved in work such as landscaping and wiring will continue doing their jobs.
Lawyers France Bonte and Bernard Georges, who are representing the residents, said the measures announced by the President are very welcome as they will help to push their case forward.

“Ascon have been dragging their feet and we hope they will now see the seriousness of the matter,” said Mr Georges.

The lawyers said they did not accept the amount of money offered as compensation by Ascon and expect payment to be in millions of rupees and not thousands per household.

They expect the company to make another out-of-court offer soon but added that they will lodge a legal claim in case it does not make a reasonable offer.