Mining concerns -Gov’t launches probe into reports of pollution of Mazaruni River
Minister of Natural resources, Raphael Trotman
Minister of Natural resources, Raphael Trotman

NATURAL Resources Minister Raphael Trotman has instructed a team to launch an investigation into the claims made by the Guyana Human Rights Association (GHRA) that there is environmental degradation in Puruni and Mazaruni, due to gold-mining activities.
The team, comprising officers of the Guyana Geology and Miles Commission (GGMC) and the Ministry’s Compliance Division, will be dispatched into the affected areas in Puruni and Mazaruni in a matter of days with a view to ascertain accuracy of the reports. Once found to be true, the Natural Resources Ministry, in a statement on Tuesday, said corrective measures will be put in place.

“As part of its 2017 programme, the ministry has made the issue of compliance in all natural resources operations a high priority. Our Compliance Division, created in 2016, is now being staffed. This notwithstanding, the Compliance Division has already been integral in a number of recent compliance enforcement campaigns in collaboration with the GGMC, which has resulted in the shutting down of a number of mining operations, including river mining, due to environmental infringements,” the Natural Resources Ministry explained.
Additionally, the ministry’s Compliance Division has been mandated to work with other relevant stakeholders and agencies on a rapid assessment of the situation in order to formulate long-term remedial policy adjustments.

At the inception meeting of the new Board of Directors of the GGMC last Thursday, Minister Trotman called on members of the board to focus on environmental management.
“Government recognises that mining has been for decades, and will continue to be, one of the mainstays of our economy and will not shirk its responsibility to ensure that it is done in a manner that respects the environment. As a nation, our efforts have not been as effective; especially in the area where mining effluent from both within Venezuela and Guyana combine to affect our rivers,” the ministry posited.

It said too that it is appreciative of the vigilance of agencies such as the GHRA, even as it recommits itself to uphold its Mission Statement: ‘To develop, implement and oversee policies for the responsible exploration, development and utilisation of natural resources whilst ensuring the protection and conservation of the environment and advancing the green economy.”

The investigation comes days after the GHRA called for a Commission of Inquiry (CoI) into the impact of mining in the Akawaio communities, Upper Mazaruni, Region Seven.
In a statement last week, GHRA contended that large stretches of the Upper Mazaruni between Jawalla and Imbaimadai, are in danger of becoming unnavigable during the current dry season even by canoe, much less outboard engines.

According to the Human Rights Association, this is as a result of reckless and illegal dumping of tailings along the banks of the river. Mining on this stretch of the Mazaruni River directly and on the banks of rivers inland to a distance of 30 metres, although illegal operations, continue to flourish.

“Experienced Amerindian boat-pilots who have traversed the river for decades now have to seek the assistance of miners familiar with the river to navigate the shoals, submerged sandbanks and reefs created by tailings.
“Incredibly, in the present dry season, a person can now wade across sections of the Upper Mazaruni River, something which will become commonplace if mining is allowed to continue unhindered. Indigenous communities living along the Mazaruni can no longer eat fish from the river, even without the deterrent of mercury poisoning,” GHRA stated.

It added: “Progress in the communities is visible in many forms – health, education, physical infra-structure, better communications and availability of a range of household goods. All of this progress will, however, count for little if access to potable water is eliminated, or expensive clarification and purification techniques are required for access to safe water.
It said availability of fresh water, currently more valuable than oil, is rapidly diminishing on a global scale.
With 23 per cent of the world’s fresh water originating in the Guyana Shield, pollution on the current scale starts to have global implications, the human rights body said.
The GHRA said the threat of river pollution to Guyana’s fledgling eco-tourism industry could be terminal.

“Swimming on the western side of the Essequibo, where most eco-lodges are located, is in jeopardy along with sports, fishing, yacht harbours and even bird-watching,” the human rights body said.
It said the strength of the mining lobby in Guyana is formidable, exemplified in former President Ramotar being forced within a month to rescind a temporary ban on new river mining due to a clamour from the industry.
The GHRA also noted that while individual Amerindians might be found who will justify river mining, the Village Councils and communities oppose it.

“As their only source of ready income, many Amerindians work on the dredges and mining sites as labourers owned by coastlanders, but have no authority over whether river-mining should be taking place or not. Similarly,mining and the condition in which it takes place on community lands is a separate problem from river-mining,” the GRHA said
Guyana recently ratified the UN Convention on Climate Change, which calls for a transformative approach to life as a whole, fundamentally challenging the morality of markets as the dominant mechanism for progress.
A green economy implies transformation on an ambitious scale, requiring new governance structures appropriate to the challenge, the GHRA said.

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