West Water exported 18,683.309 cubic meters<\/a> of timber last year, according to the FDA records. That means the company should have paid locals US$28,024 for that shipment alone, based on their contract. <\/p>\n\n\n\nLocals also said they were holding West Water\u2019s machines because it had abandoned hundreds of logs in the community forest. Deserting logs in the forest for over three weeks violates the Regulation on Abandoned Logs, Timber, and Timber Products.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Omega Jimmy, a local leader, said they seized the equipment because West Water ignored their warnings. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe heard that they were about to take their machines from the bush and run away from the community. We quickly moved in and stopped them because they came and exploited our resources, and want to leave the community with nothing,\u201d Jimmy said.<\/p>\n\n\n\nWest Water has a 15-year contract with District Three B&C Community Forest in Grand Bassa County. Locals have seized the company\u2019s equipment over unsettled debts. The DayLight\/Derick Snyder<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\nJeffrey Gao, West Water\u2019s CEO and majority shareholder, admitted his company is indebted to the community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI did not calculate the exact amount that we owe the community, but it is similar to what the community said,\u201d said Gao.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, he blamed it on the community’s repeated disruptions of his operations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe community people have looted our properties and set up repeated roadblocks. They have caused me to lose over a million dollars to the extent that I am almost bankrupt,\u201d added Gao.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The community rejects this claim, saying West Water was begging them on one hand and accusing them on the other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cNo, we did not loot anything,\u201d Jimmy said. \u201cThis is a double standard. West Water cannot be begging us to go back to the negotiation table and at the same time accusing the community of damaging its properties. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Meanwhile, tension heightens in the area.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Last month, a meeting organized by the office of the Grand Bassa superintendent failed to resolve the dispute. Weeks later, community forest leaders called for the cancellation of West Water\u2019s contract.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
District elders have issued a traditional order, preventing West Water from removing its equipment from the community forest, Jimmy said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Early June last year, West Water wrote to the Ministry of Justice, asking it to urgently intervene to save his company from \u201crobbery, theft, and damage\u201d to his properties.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIf not handled urgently, [this] could lead to the company closing its operations and leaving Liberia, something that would greatly impact the country negatively,\u201d read the letter. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
This was a Community of Forest and Environmental Journalists of Liberia (CoFEJ) production.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Top: West Water\u2019s camp in Tonwein, Nimba County. The DayLight\/Gerald Koinyeneh ByEsau J. Farr GAYPUE TOWN, Grand Bassa County \u2013 Local leaders in a Grand Bassa community forest have seized a logging company\u2019s equipment for failing to pay their benefits. Locals seized six West Water Group (Liberia) Inc.’s earthmovers, obstructing the company\u2019s operations in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":6516,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"give_campaign_id":0,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[54,3],"tags":[1410,107,3101],"class_list":["post-6513","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-logging","category-rainforest","tag-grand-bassa-county","tag-liberia","tag-west-water-group-liberia-incorporated"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t
\n\t\t\tHome<\/a>\n\t\t<\/span>\u00bb<\/span>\n\t\t\tRainforest<\/a>\n\t\t<\/span>\u00bb<\/span>\n\t\t\tLogging<\/a>\n\t\t<\/span>\u00bb<\/span>\n\t\t\tCommunity Seizes Loggers\u2019 Equipment in Bassa\n\t\t<\/span><\/div>","aioseo_breadcrumb_json":[{"label":"Home","link":"https:\/\/stage.thedaylight.org\/wp68"},{"label":"Rainforest","link":"https:\/\/stage.thedaylight.org\/wp68\/category\/rainforest\/"},{"label":"Logging","link":"https:\/\/stage.thedaylight.org\/wp68\/category\/rainforest\/logging\/"},{"label":"Community Seizes Loggers\u2019 Equipment in Bassa","link":"https:\/\/stage.thedaylight.org\/wp68\/2025\/10\/07\/community-seizes-loggers-equipment-in-bassa\/"}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stage.thedaylight.org\/wp68\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6513","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stage.thedaylight.org\/wp68\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stage.thedaylight.org\/wp68\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stage.thedaylight.org\/wp68\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stage.thedaylight.org\/wp68\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6513"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/stage.thedaylight.org\/wp68\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6513\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6523,"href":"https:\/\/stage.thedaylight.org\/wp68\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6513\/revisions\/6523"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stage.thedaylight.org\/wp68\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6516"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stage.thedaylight.org\/wp68\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6513"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stage.thedaylight.org\/wp68\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6513"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stage.thedaylight.org\/wp68\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6513"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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