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The Ministry of Finance, National Planning and Trade will make the second compensation payments by June 19 to La Misere residents affected by the contaminated water incident that took place more than a decade ago, said a top government official on Tuesday.Seychelles' 2010 water pollution case: second compensation payouts to be made June 19
The Ministry of Finance, National Planning and Trade will make the second compensation payments by June 19 to La Misere residents affected by the contaminated water incident that took place more than a decade ago, said a top government official on Tuesday. Around 1,400 inhabitants from La Misere and Petit Barbarons in the western parts of Mahe, the main island, including those working in La Misere, were affected by the water pollution during the construction of the former UAE President Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed al-Nahyan's palace complex in 2010. The incident occurred after an accident at the sewage plant caused diesel and raw sewage to seep into local water sources, causing severe health problems to the local population once the contaminated water reached homes. The construction firm for the project, Associated Contracting and Consulting Limited (ASCON) agreed in March 2011 to a total payout of SCR99 million ($7.2 million) after over 90 percent of residents from affected homes accepted the SCR250,000 ($18,289) offered to each home. The Seychelles' government had pledged to pay the $15 million to settle the second round of compensation claims and that the payments were done in phases with the first payment in 2020 followed by the second one in 2021. Following the first compensation payments made in 2020, the second payments «will only be made to those who were paid the initial instalment of compensation money,» said the secretary of state for finance, Patrick Payet. The payments that will be made on June 19 will be to those qualifying for the compensation and whose information remains the same as that provided at the time of the last payment. The rest of the payment will made by June 27. Government officers will be available at the La Misere School on Saturday 8 June to collect information needed to update information the ministry has collected from the Civil Status data and the Department of Information Communication and Technology (DICT). This second installment is the payment on the balance of the SCR50,000 ($3,664), SCR 25,000 ($1,832) and SCR15,000 ($1,100) made in 2020. In total, the government will pay $8.6 million in the final installment to the 1,758 individuals who qualified for compensation. Payet told the press that additional work will have to be carried out to assess the validity of 1,149 new individual claims - which may cost SCR123 million ($8.9 million) in total. Tamatave said that a series of procedures were being established to ensure that the process goes smoothly. She said that since the last payment, «107 people have changed their names and these individuals have to send their change of name documents to receive payments.» Tamaktave explained that in addition to the name changes, there are 707 residents paid with a cheque in 2020, who will have to provide their bank details to officials for funds to be directly transferred to their accounts. «This time we will mainly transfer the funds to their bank accounts, which is why we are asking people to come in with the bank cards and details,» she added. Official figures also show that 49 of those on the initial list of those compensated in 2020 have passed away, delaying their beneficiaries' payments. «The procedures will be much longer as there are affidavits and executors that come into play, and we don't expect that the payments will be made by the end of June,» said Tamatave. Read more