"Anti-Chinese protests in a Gambian fishing village show conflict of foreign investment in Africa" 28 June 2019

[...] For the past few years, the seafront at Gunjur has been at the centre of a tense environmental and social dispute, one that magnifies wider concerns about the nature of Chinese investment in The Gambia.

The dispute is over a factory that produces fishmeal, a product obtained by drying and grinding fish or fish waste. [...] In 2016, a Chinese-owned fishmeal manufacturer, Golden Lead, opened a factory and started operations at Gunjur Beach. The factory is flanked by the ocean on one side and on the other the Bolong Fenyo – a lagoon with lots of birds that was Gambia’s first community wildlife reserve.

Golden Lead’s operational contract was issued by the previous government of Yahya Jammeh [...] Some locals worried about its environmental impact but, nonetheless, the factory was initially welcomed. Locals believed Golden Lead promised improved infrastructure, increased employment and training for Gambians. With relatively high wages on offer, around 80 people took up jobs.

However tensions soon surfaced over the factory’s use of ocean-caught bonga, a fish that Gunjurians have long relied upon as a cheap and abundant source of protein. Increased pressure on supplies has already pushed up bonga prices.

Local residents allege that since the factory arrived in Gunjur, swathes of dead fish and mammals – including whales, turtles, dolphins, eels and rays – have washed up on the beach. Things started to escalate when, in 2017, the Bolong Fenyo suddenly changed colour and fish and birds in the protected reserve started to die. Biomedical scientist Ahmed Manjang tested the local water and found it was unusually high in phosphates.

Local environmentalists blamed a waste pipe running from the factory building into the ocean (fishmeal factories tend to produce lots of wastewater). However, Golden Lead had previously denied that it had been dumping wastewater products.

The Gambian National Environment Agency (NEA) then got involved, and ordered Golden Lead to treat its wastewater and remove the pipe. However, after months of inaction, local residents and environmental activists gave Golden Lead an ultimatum: move the pipe within seven days or we will. And so, on March 22 2018, that’s exactly what they did. Up to 150 young Gunjurians assembled on the beach, where they were met by a large deployment of police. A group of activists armed with shovels physically dug out and removed the pipe.

In spite of the NEA’s earlier demands, Golden Lead was soon permitted to reinstall a waste pipe. Local news agency, Gunjur News Online said the move was politically motivated, with their sources suggesting that the government stepped in due to concerns about discouraging potential investors. Foreign income is much sought after by the Gambian government, which must contend with a large current account deficit and public debt. [...]

Local activists continue to allege the plant is responsible for pollution and overfishing, but the government says it is satisfied Golden Lead has cleaned up its act. Golden Lead denied to the Guardian in March 2019 that it outcompetes local fish sellers and said it had a zero tolerance approach to pollution. As also reported in the paper, Jojo Huang, the director of the fishmeal plant, has also previously stated that the factory was “in no way responsible for the dumping of fish in the local area” and that it “does not pump chemicals into the sea and has followed guidance from the National Environment Agency on waste management”. [...]