THE Guyana Human Rights Association (GHRA) has welcomed the decision by President David Granger to sign on to the Paris Agreement on climate change, and his intention that Guyana will ratify this Agreement before the end of the year.The Friday event in New York represented the launch of the document, agreed upon in Paris last year. Only fifteen states were prepared to ratify the new treaty, and a further forty is required before it comes into effect.

The Agreement sets out a global action plan to put the world on track to limit global warming at between 1.7°C and 2°C.

A statement from the GHRA noted that the President’s action on climate change coincides with the announcement by Minister of Natural Resources, Raphael Trotman, that the ban on river mining will be reintroduced.

“The fact that the announcement was followed by TV notices drawing the attention of miners to the ban suggests a stronger determination to implement the ban than was the case with a similar ban in 2012.
On that occasion, the weaker restriction -– a suspension of new licenses for river mining –- was withdrawn after a month, following an uproar from the mining community.

“The new ban makes clear that all mining on buffer zones, that is, land within thirty feet of the river bank, is closed to mining,” the GHRA noted.

The GHRA is of the view that without effective regulation, mining activity will pollute the headwaters of many rivers coming off the Guyana Shield, and will simply destroy this asset, unless adequate regulation is seriously enforced.

“Moreover, enforcement of the real costs of land and river reclamation is urgently needed, and failure to face up to this reality is another form of climate denial”, the GHRA said.

“Environmental advocates, both indigenous and coastal, looking for more aggressive rights-related protection of Guyana’s fresh water sources will welcome this signal that the Government of Guyana is conscious of its global responsibilities for the 30% of the world’s fresh water generated from the Amazon Basin. As with the Congo Basin in Africa, the world’s other major source of fresh water, protection of the Amazon has been a low priority for most Amazonian countries.”

The human rights body noted also that fresh water will soon become valuable to Guyana in the not-too-distant future. It has referred to Trinidad, Barbados and the French Caribbean territories which are considering rationing fresh water to assure its citizens they possess adequate reserves.

“We have seen wars fought for oil in the past decade, and according to UN estimates, wars over freshwater resources will soon be a reality. Desertification of parts of the Middle East has directly impacted the instability in Syria”, the body has said.