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Bauxite Environmental Impacts in Conakry, Guinea: A Case of City and Hinterland Confluences

<p>As documented thoroughly in a 2018 Human Rights Watch report on bauxite mining in Guinea, the friable dust from the ore’s mining and transportation has had quantifiable impacts on local plant life, waterways and agricultural livelihood. Bauxite is transported in overloaded, uncovered trucks loaded across unpaved or partially paved roads to the capital city Conakry, site of the country’s major industrial port. Airborn bauxite dust creates a plume that, with the advent of seasonal rain, moves into minor and major rivers, ending ultimately in the country’s coastal regions and its capital, a peninsula, is dependent upon fisheries for its economic activity and upon mangroves for its resilience to climate change flooding hazards. Although attention has thus far been focused on bauxite ore impacts within the mining region, transportation and riverine arteries mean that the flow of bauxite through Conakry has no less serious consequences for human health, environmental impact and livelihoods reduction than it does in mining areas. An accounting of all inputs and outputs through Conakry would have to include not on the ore itself as it moves through the city on its way to the port, but also the air and water-borne bauxite particles that end up residing in the city and its coast. Working in collaboration with the UN Development Programme in Guinea, our team is using a combination of quantitative analysis through satellite imaging and qualitative analysis, to be completed in collaboration with Guinea Partners, to begin the process of benchmarking and monitoring the presence of bauxite ore dust in the capital city, and measuring its impacts via waterways transmission to environment and livelihoods.</p>

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