THE Guyana Human Rights Association (GHRA) is calling for a Commission of Inquiry (CoI) into the impact of mining in the Akawaio communities, Upper Mazaruni, Region Seven.
The GHRA in a statement said 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.
This is caused by 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, continues 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.
“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,” the GHRA said.
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.
Water wars around the world are being provoked by countries compromising their neighbour’s water supply. China, for example, by controlling the Tibet plateau, also controls the freshwater sources of India, Bangladesh, Nepal and much of South-East Asia.

COULD BE TERMINAL
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 clamour from the industry.
Similar pronouncements by the current administration have fallen on equally deaf ears, the GHRA said, noting that political ambivalence, coupled with indifference from the technical agencies responsible for administration of Guyana’s rivers, explain why this problem continues unabated.
“The justice system has failed to enforce constitutional protections in relation to environmental matters. Efforts by the Kako community to keep the Kakorivera black-water tributary of the Mazaruni by preventing a dredge owner from traversing the river were met initially with a court order seeking imprisonment of the toshao for ‘willful and brazen disobedience and contempt’. Fortunately, as a result of community’s resistance, a clear straight line still distinguishes the black Kako waters from the muddy Mazaruni at the point of confluence.”

EVASIVE
Queries to official sources, the GHRA noted,are met with evasion, and the closest thing to an explanation being to blame Amerindians.
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 human rights body 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.
And on that note, it called for a national Commission of Inquiry comprising all local interest and, if necessary, diaspora expertise, as an urgent first step to energise a process of transformative action.
“Such a commission should aim to ensure that people can live and work in healthy, vibrant places and be dedicated to restorative and preventative actions on waterways, lands, protection of wild-life and all other forms of life now under threat,” the GHRA said.