The infrastructure challenge extends beyond the operational needs of mines to the migration of people in the DRC to areas where mines are started. Steve Bartels, principal civil engineering technologist at SRK Consulting, highlights basic urban facilities and infrastructure – which are vital for not only supporting the surrounding communities with services but also the mine facilities.
“As settlements mushroom around mining areas, it is important for authorities to adopt an integrated approach to urban infrastructure,” says Bartels. “Just as infrastructure needs to be planned and constructed according to health and engineering standards, so the same approach needs to guide the sustainable provision of water, electricity and other services.”
Already there is considerable infrastructure developing to accommodate the growing business traffic from abroad, says SRK Consulting principal environmental scientist Wouter Jordaan, including an international airport, and new hotels to accommodate the influx of additional traffic into the area.
“Fast-developing information technology and communication services and a growing hospitality industry in the DRC can be game-changing, while creating further opportunities to develop new skill sets in the economy,” says Jordaan.
“This is one of the important signs of diversification of economic activity, which will provide and important foundation for the government’s aim of re-establishing a skilled middle class in the country.”
There is wide acceptance that the mining sector, as a pioneer industry, plays a central role in this endeavour. It generates demand for a wide range of services and products, he says, which government wants mines to procure increasingly from the local economy rather than abroad.
Legal requirements like the ARSP, which requires mines to procure certain services and goods from majority locally owned and registered companies, and the Cahier des Charges, which requires mines to invest in local infrastructural development to address community needs within the mine’s zone of influence, have this end in mind.
Leon Louw Sally Braham Megan van Wyngaardt SRK Consulting
Image credit: SRK Consulting
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Health Policy - PNG Resources Management Research
9moOhhhh i would love to come up and be involved in this... I really enjoyed observing the MLE consultations. It would be great to see how different the 2009-2012 consult process is to the current one.