Assessing quality of life in a mining region

Does mining influence the quality of life of local people?

This paper reports on an exploratory exercise to assess quality of life (QOL) in a mining region. The paper explores whether mining influences the QOL of the local people. The study, conducted using a QOL tool, suggests that while there is a difference in objective conditions between mining and non-mining regions, there is no statistically significant difference in satisfaction levels between the two, except for the environmental domain. This is especially important in the case of women, who report higher satisfaction levels but overall have a lower access to resources.

The study also finds that:

the impact that mining has on local lives depends very much on the resources available to and conditions faced by local people who follow mining activity
differences in objective conditions can be clear and captured, while differences in satisfaction levels between mining and non-mining villages are of significance only in the environmental domain, where peoplein the mining region reported lower satisfaction levels in all facets.

The report is part of a larger IDRC funded project.

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Assessing quality of life in a mining region