PERCEPTIONS OF THE GOLD PANNERS AND THE POPULATION ON THE ENVIRONMENTAL EFFECTS AND SOCIO-SANITARYS THE EXPLOITATION OF THE GOLD HAS KAMITUGA, IN THE EAST OF THE RDC

Introduction: The mining exploitation always affected the immediate environment and the socio-sanitary life by the nature of the rock exploited and the use of the chemical products at the time of the treatment of gold. The objective of this survey was to clear the perceptions of the orpailleurs and non orpailleurs on the environmental and socio-sanitary effects of this exploitation. Methode: A transverse survey has been achieved in the mining City of Kamituga in Province of the South-Kivu. A questionnaire has been distributed to a sample of orpailleurs and present non orpailleurs at the time of the investigation. Then a documentary withdrawal has been achieved in five sanitary structures of Kamituga to determine the illnesses met at the orpailleurs during five years. Results: A total of 220 investigated of which 153 orpailleurs and 67 non orpailleurs had taken part to this survey, 26% of the children of less than 17 years were minor. The most quoted illness is the silicosis to 30%, then the intestinal parasitoses to 27%, the malnutrition a18%, the cough and the tuberculosis to 10%, the HIV to 8%. The relocation of the institutions and sacred sites were discerned by 22,7% to 36,6% of them investigated. The degree of the association of perception of the effects of this exploitation was associated meaningfully between the ‘function’ orpailleur and the masculine sex (p=0,006) ; the use of mercury, of cyanide and the generation of the acidic mining drainage (DMA) and their threat for the environment according to the majority of the orpailleurs (p?0,05), the level of the knowledge of the effects and the function orpailleurs and non orpailleurs (p < 0,05 and p < 0,01), the use of the protective materials and the knowledge so many the orpailleurs and non orpailleurs (p < 0,01). Conclusion: This survey had permitted to note that the environmental effects and sanitary socio resulting from the mining exploitation of gold in Kamituga were known meaningfully so much by the population that by the orpailleurs. These effects result from the dismissal of mercury and cyanide in the environment, of the deficit on average of use of the protective materials, of the relocation of the institutions and the sacred sites.