Turarana river, where the WinWin mining company is operating.
By EDDIE OSIFELO
WIN Win Investment Solomon Limited has promoted an environmental management plan (EMP) to monitor the quality of air, land and water within its Turarana mining lease area, Central Guadalcanal, during its planned alluvial mining operation.
This was stated in its monthly report released on 10th July 2021.
It states earlier monthly reports have not made any mention of environmental monitoring activities being undertaken within the mining lease area.
Francis Badii Professional Consultancy Services conducted on site Environmental assessment monitoring works in June, 2021.
“He was also contracted to undertake quarterly environmental assessment reviews for Win Win Investment Solomon Ltd for its alluvial gold mining operation at its Turarana ML02/18 Mining Lease areas.
“He had since completed and submitted quarterly environmental reviews for Win Win Investment Solomon Ltd for years 2019 and 2020 as of February, 2021,” the report states.
It states Badii has already completed and submitted year 2021’s first quarterly environmental review works.
“He is yet to complete the 2nd quarterly environmental assessment review works.
“The 2021 quarterly environmental reviews will be submitted when Francis Badii Professional Consultancy Services completes the task,” it states.
AHC Political Counsellor Kevin Playford and DAP Manager Laura Wilson with representatives of the 12 DAP-funded projects at the handover ceremony on 12 November.
THE Australian Government, through the Direct Aid Program (DAP), has funded 12 additional community-led projects, taking the total number of DAP-funded projects to 19 for the 2021 calendar year.
On 12 November, Counsellor (Political) Kevin Playford and DAP Manager Laura Wilson congratulated the successful project applicants during a handover ceremony at the Australian High Commission.
The 12 projects in this round will support communities across Solomon Islands, including in Isabel, Western, Choiseul, Malaita and Central Provinces and in Honiara.
President of the Central Province Council of Women Naomi Selo and AHC Political Counsellor Kevin Playford signing a DAP project agreement to upgrade and complete a conference and training block at the Central Province Council of Women office in Tulagi.
In line with Australia’s COVID-19 Development Response, the DAP team encouraged project applications which helped build COVID-19 resilience, particularly in the education, health and sanitation sectors.
“We also prioritised projects which benefitted disadvantaged groups such as women, youth and people with disability, as well as those from remote communities, including projects that build climate change resilience.
The approved projects include classroom building refurbishments, water supply and restoration works, installation of a school dormitory fence and support to build a seawall.
AHC Political Counsellor Kevin Playford and DAP/CPP Manager Laura Wilson with Rhoda Sikilabu, MPA for Sigana Ward, discussing Sikilabu’s sea wall project in Isabel.
Counsellor (Political) Kevin Playford urged the Project Coordinators to complete the projects in a comprehensive and timely manner.
He advised the Project Coordinators to build awareness about their projects in their communities and to ensure the projects benefit as many community members as possible.
“We wish the project coordinators all the best with the implementation of their projects and look forward to visiting their projects and communities in due course,” Playford said.
DAP is a small grants-based program, which supports community-led projects.
Applications are available free of charge on our website or can be picked up from the Australian High Commission in Honiara.
GOVERNMENT says accusations by Opposition Leader Mathew Wale claiming the Prime Minister intends to extend the life of Parliament for five years were baseless and grossly misleading.
“First, it is Parliament that has the legal mandate to amend the Constitution to extend the life of Parliament, not the Prime Minister,” a statement the Government issued last night said.
“Wale is using a deceptive scheme to turn the public opinion against the Prime Minister by misrepresenting the Constitutional requirement to the public as if the public is dumb,” it added.
“For Wale to say otherwise and put this on the Prime Minister is an insult to the intellectual capacity of our public.
“Our public deserves more from the Leader of Opposition, not calculated misrepresentation of facts and law to mislead the public with the aim of causing instability and public confusion.
“This is unbecoming, immoral and unethical of someone who has always aspire to be a Prime Minister.”
The statement said the Government’s ongoing consultation at present on this issue is to solicit learned views of the public on the issue whether to extend the life of parliament or not.
“The views from the public consultation will be collated for government to take account of and to make a decision on after the consultations.
“Misinformation on the extension of the life of the current parliament is not only misleading on the part of the Opposition Leader but demonstrates his ignorance on important national events that has implications on the upcoming election.
“The Government reminded national leaders to take the responsibility not to stir emotions and spread unfounded and baseless information similar to the latest outburst by the Opposition Leader.
“The statement explained that as both the Pacific Games 2023 and the National General Elections will occur on the same time, government has the option to bring to parliament the premature dissolution of the parliament prior to the games or extend it for a few months after the games.
“These options are being considered by the government and until a firm decision is made the status quo remains.
“National leaders such as the Opposition Leader know these processes and are reminded not to share half-cooked information.
“The Government added that as opposed to the Leader of Opposition’s ‘Deceptive Scheme’ article accusing the government of trying to unnecessarily hold on to powers, the opposite is actually true.
“In all seriousness, the government in its 2022 budget is committing funds to fast track the necessary electoral reforms.
“Major activities for next year’s budget include voter registration update for Western and Choiseul provinces.
“This will be followed by Provincial elections for both Provinces.
“The National biometric voter registration update is a massive load the government is assisting the Solomon Islands Electoral Office complete ahead of the coming National General Elections.”
The statement said preparations for the upcoming National General Election, largely in terms of procurement, is a priority for the government that will also be reflected in its 2022 budget.
The Government is supporting SIEC to establish the mechanism of the automatic voter registration and begin the actual registration as soon as possible, a process already hindered by the restrictions and constraints of COVID19 for a year.
White River Community High School student Thomas Afu shares his achievement with his family members for scooping the form 3 overall prize during the school’s graduation ceremony at Pacific Casino Hotel yesterday. PHOTO: CHARLES KADAMANA
BY CHARLES KADAMANA
Acting Vice-Chancellor of the Solomon Islands National University (SINU) Dr Jack Maebuta inspired White River Community High School graduates through his reflections of his successful personal journey in life.
Dr Maebuta’s journey to success is a long story he achieved it through perseverance, which he masters it from his heart, head and hands.
He highlighted these when delivering his keynote address during the school’s graduation ceremony at Pacific Casino Hotel yesterday.
Dr Maebuta said his journey when he started in high school did not turn out as he wanted but what inspired him is, his goal to do his personal best.
Aciting Vice Chancellor Dr Jack Maebuta presents the form 3 overall prize to Thomas Afu
He recalls that during his primary school days he did not have the marks to go to national secondary school so he ended up in provincial secondary.
In Form 3, he did not have the marks to make it to Form 4 so he was pushed out at Form 3.
But that did not stop him because in his heart he knew Education is a limitless industry.
Form 7 students of White River CHS procession for the graduation ceremony
As result of that he was accepted to do Primary teaching at the Solomon Island College of High Education.
He said what motivates him at that time is he has an inspiring goal and that is to do his personal best.
“I set my goal that I must work hard and do my personal best.
“My personal best is not the best for others. Personal best is not all about getting straight A grades. It is about giving your best.
Brevonstar Analau share his achievement with his mother
“If your best is C grades that’s your best and it can move you on as you journey through your education journey,” he told the graduates.
Dr Maebuta added that to succeed in life they have to educate themselves (Head).
“You must guide your education because it is like gold mine so you must guide it well.
“Education gives you more options in life.
White River CHS Dux student, Renzol Lote receives his award from Dr Maebuta
“After completing my teacher training, I started my preliminary studies at USP centre here.
“It was a challenge. Being a form three dropout, I have difficulties in the subjects but what got me through was reading and reading and reading and more reading of my course materials.
“When I read, I don’t understand, I read and read again until there is a window of understanding,” he said.
Rapeiasi Benny fill with excitement after receiving her certificate
Dr Maebuta encourages the graduates to train to read no matter how hard it is they can go as far they can.
He further said to succeed in life they must take action despite their failures.
“You may be discouraged because you may see yourself as failure. Don’t see yourself as failure.
“When I dropped out of Form 3, I did not see myself as failure but that experience pushed me to aspire and do something which I did.”
Kilamu Julian smiles after receiving her certificate
He said failure is a good thing. It is feedback and it is success in progress.
“Don’t be afraid to fail. Be less concerned with short-term failure, and more concerned with long-term success.
“Your career is a marathon, not a sprint so if you’re not off to a fast start, don’t sweat it. Your High School is where your career starts, but it’s where it ends that counts.
Top students cutting the cake
“See the benefits in not getting the mark you want (when one door closes, another door opens)
“It’s character building. We learn much more from our challenges than our successes,” he said.
He told the graduates to search for a goal that inspires them, educate themselves and take action despite failures.
SEVEN passengers from the Fiji-repatriation flight who remained in quarantine stations with inconclusive test results have graduated from quarantine stations.
This was confirmed to Island Sun Newspaper by Dr Yogesh Choudhri, technical advisor for Ministry of Health and Medical Services.
“All of them have tested negative and were released on Sunday,” Choudhri said.
A total of 132 people arrived from Fiji on October 28th 2021.
After serving their mandatory quarantine period at the quarantine stations, only 125 were first released from quarantine, whilst seven people from the flight remained due to inconclusive test results.
As of Sunday all passengers from that flight have graduated from quarantine facilities and have had their test results returned negative.
SCALE-NRM Development Organizational Coordinator Junior Wale explains river catchment management and protection to villagers
Winrock International Solomon Islands’ Community Engagement Team have reached out to Bina and Kwaibala communities and surrounding areas in preparation for the roll-out of river catchment management and forest protection activities.
Protection of fresh waters through forest management and conservation at these catchment areas are crucial to ensure clean and sufficient water supply to the growing Auki township and proposed developments at Bina Harbour.
Subsequent proposed project activities in those catchment areas will involve assessment of degraded forest areas, reforestation of those areas and other livelihood activities.
With the agreement of the tribes who are responsible for the lands within the Bina and Kwaibala catchment areas, Winrock will work on the development of a Payment for Ecosystem Services (PES) initiative, also known as Carbon trading.
Any such initiative would be a partnership with the resource owners and would aim to provide benefits to the resource owners.
The team visited catchment communities in wards 1, 28 and 29 over the period from Thursday 11th to Tuesday 16th November, together with the local MPAs Felix Bosokuru and Claudio Tei’ifi.
The SCALE-NRM team will also meet with Nakau members this week to discuss initial activities for commencement of work with two tribal groups in East Fataleka to progress initial key PES required activities.
Nakau, an international group that specializes in PES project and forest carbon feasibility assessment and development in Solomon Islands, Vanuatu and Fiji, will work with SCALE-NRM to ensure tribes are able to meet the key requirements for a PES scheme and associated standards.
The work on PES in Bina/ Kwaibala and East Fataleka follows on from last week’s signature of a partnership agreement with Mai Ma’asina Greenbelt, a community-based conservation network that currently works with various other 30 tribal groups in Malaita, to progress PES activities over the coming years.
Implemented by Winrock International, Strengthening Competitiveness, Agriculture and Livelihoods – Natural Resource Management SCALE-NRM initially targets Malaita, and is made possible by the generous support of the American people to develop and implement sustainable models for improved natural resource governance in Malaita Province and throughout Solomon Islands.
WINWIN Investment Solomon Limited has exported a total of 3,258.47 ounce of gold from its last 6th shipment from January to June 2021.
This is worth around $48 million (USD$6million) base on the market price of US$1,853 per ounce.
The export of gold shipment came from its operation at Turarana in Central Guadalcanal.
However, the company could not make any gold shipment from July 2019 to December 2020 as stated in the monthly report released on July 10, 2021.
According to the report, the trial mining period commenced at the start of July 2019.
The trial mining commenced at the Mamasa alluvial flat deposit but was later shifted upstream to the Turarana Area (Kavahambe) after very low gold recoveries (0.15g/cubic metre(cu.m)) were experienced at the Mamasa alluvial flats deposit which is well below break even levels.
After heavy floods that left the Turarana wash plant inundated in October 2019; alluvial mining operations were shifted back to the Mamasa area in November, 2019 while reconstruction of the Turarana wash plant was progressing.
Mining operations were shifted back again to the Turarana wash plant in December 2019 due to improved gold recoveries experienced there.
Up to present time only the Turarana wash plant is currently being worked.
The first export consignment was made through the Government arranged direct flight to China at the end of January.
This sixth consignment was again sent to its arranged buyer in Hong Kong who will assay the gold for its purity before its final value is paid to Win Win company.
In the previous months and even up to now, export of gold overseas has been extremely difficult due to the restrictions on overseas flights to and from Honiara due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The current gold export consignment arrangement is being made through the arranged weekly airline freight services from Honiara.
The export of any gold related commodities must be approved and signed off by the Director of Mines Department.
“Effective climate services facilitate decisions that will reduce the impacts of climate related disasters, improved food security, health outcome and water resource management.”
This statement was made by Dr Melchior Mataki, permanent secretary to the Ministry of Environment Climate Change Disaster Management and Meteorology in his remarks to open a National Climate Outlook Forum on November 16, 2021 in Honiara.
Currently Solomon Islands is trying to address the challenges of understanding climate predictions and the use of climate information to improve its own capabilities to better serve the needs of its people.
Today Climate Change plays an important role on informing decision makers about how to reduce the impact of climate related hazards, and it is essential for adaptation to climate variability and change.
“Effective climate services facilitate climate-smart decisions that will reduce the impact of climate change-related disasters, improve food security, outcome and water resource management,” said Mr Mataki.
Realizing these needs the World Meteorological Organization initiated the Global Framework for Climate Services (GFCS) for four sectors that include Agriculture, Health, Disaster Risk Reduction, water Resources and the recent inclusion of Energy.
This framework is important for Solomon Islands given our crops, fish and water that we depend on also depend on weather and climate.
In line with MECDMs corporate plan and the DCCG policy to “strengthen and support the national meteorological service” the Ministry is continuing to expand its weather and climate observation network through support from UNDP.
The workshop was attended by various stake holders from fisheries, water resources, agriculture, health, forestry and representatives media, NGOs and People with Disabilities.
High Commissioner Eliam Tangirongo and Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern at the Prime Minister’s Office, New Zealand Parliament.
Solomon Islands High Commissioner to New Zealand, Eliam Tangirongo presented his Letter of Introduction to Prime Minister, Rt Hon Jacinda Ardern on Monday, November 15, 2021.
Upon receiving Tangirongo’ s Letter of Introduction, Prime Minister Ardern congratulated him on his new appointment.
In response, Tangirongo thanked Prime Minister Ardern for accepting his credentials and endeavours to work in close collaboration with the New Zealand Government.
Prime Minister Ardern conveyed New Zealand’s ongoing strong bilateral support to the Solomon Islands Government and looks forward to work closely with the Solomon Islands High Commission to New Zealand.
Some of the issues discussed during their brief dialogue during the ceremony were on New Zealand’s support in terms of the Covid19 Vaccination roll out and its management in the Solomon Islands, New Zealand’s infrastructure and development support to the Solomon Islands, New Zealand’s support in Education and Climates change, and Solomon Island’s participation in the Recognised Seasonal Employee (RSE) scheme as one of the pressing issues that requires some urgent attention.
Tangirongo informed Ardern on the current State of Public Emergency (SoPE) situation in the Solomon Islands and looks forward to work collaboratively with the New Zealand Government in strengthening and deepening the long standing mutual bilateral relations between the two countries.
High Commissioner Eliam Tangirongo replaces Joy Kere whose term ended in February 2020.
From left to right: Jerry Siota, Dean of Faculty of Business and Tourism Studies shaking hand with Andrew Nihopara, Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism with the signed MoU document.
The Ministry of Culture and Tourism (MCT) and the Solomon Islands National University (SINU) signed a Memorandum of Understanding to collaborate in the tourism human development, on Friday November 12.
Permanent Secretary of MCT, Andrew Nihopara and Dean of the SINU Faculty of Business and Tourism Studies, Jerry Siota signed the MoU at SINU School of Tourism and Hospitality Management.
Nihopara highlighted that the MoU is critical at a time when fostering partnerships is important for meaningful engagements and collaborations between Government ministries and other agencies representing key development sectors of Solomon Islands.
“The Ministry is fully committed to undertake and translate the obligations and commitments that are stipulated in the MoU we are signing today into meaningful areas of collaboration, to commence as early as 2022.”
Senior management team of the Solomon Islands National University, Ministry of Culture and Tourism and Tourism Solomons officials posing for a photograph with the signed MoU of collaboration documents.
He pointed the main areas in that collaboration signed in the MoU;
Research collaboration, by encouraging meaningful research to serve the mutual interest of those from government and the Solomon Islands National University’s academic needs;
Entrepreneurship award scheme to the final year tourism and hospitality students’ best proposals, as the incentives to the students at the highest level;
Adopt a notion of becoming job creators than job seekers;
Jointly promoting symposiums, conferences, talk stories, and seminars of issues of importance for tourism;
Participation of the students in trade fairs;
And active engagements and dialogues for the development of the students.
Dean Siota commended the collaboration, as guided by the MoU, for the next three years, is proper for comprehensive partnership for strategic as well for academic engagements for the period of 2022 to 2024.
He thanked the Permanent Secretary Nihopara for recognising the importance of collaboration.
On the same note, he congratulated the School of Tourism and Hospitality Management for that initiative and liaising with MCT for the MoU signing happened.
Jerry Siota, Dean of the Faculty of Business and Tourism Studies, SINU acknowledging the Ministry of Culture and Tourism’s recognition of the collaboration between SINU and Ministry of Culture to develop the tourism human resources at SINU.
“This MoU is not in silo. But it is continuing to link the SINU strategic plan,” said Siota. “Which is to link with stakeholders such as the government ministries, private sector, regional and international universities.”
Thus, the Faculty of Business and Tourism Management was embarking on series of MoUs. And that MoU signing was a start.
Nihopara elaborated that the timing of that collaboration could be renewable and extendable upon its review.
“I can emphasis the fact that translating the signed MoU into practical results for our students is the key,” he added.
The MoU signing was witnessed by SINU senior management, SINU tourism students, Tourism Solomons Head of Sales and Marketing, and MCT officials.
