The Guyana Human Rights Association (GHRA) has commended the Natural Resources Ministry for its prompt action in issuing five cease and desist orders against owners of gold-mining dredges on the Puruni River.

The GHRA, which in a statement had raised concerns about pollution of the river, also said it is encouraging that the Ministry has promised similar actions against others in the coming weeks.

The accompanying announcement that a ‘multi-dimensional solution to a complex problem’ will be developed in the coming weeks opens up opportunities for  development of a more sustained response to protecting the life of Guyana’s major river systems, the human rights body said.

But it noted that while mining is the most urgent danger posed to fresh water resources in Guyana, it is not the only source of concern in a country whose future has been defined by water since its inception.

“Aquifers–the underground source of water for coastal communities – are also shrinking and need to be supplemented.  The scale of the response must match the scale of the problem. Rather than the object of respect, the prevailing Guyanese attitude to nature is that it is something to possess, dominate and cast aside when no longer useful.  Other societies have manifest much more imagination and purposefulness, their starting-point being to recognise nature as a living being in need of legal protection similar to the respect afforded to human life.”

Evidence of other approaches include New Zealand, which in 2012 declared the Whanganui River to be a legal entity, “having the status of a legal person with all corresponding rights, duties and liabilities”.

The Whanganui Agreement aims to ensure that all stakeholders and the river community as a whole are actively engaged in developing the long-term future of the river and ensuring its wellbeing.

Two years later an Indian court appointed three officials to act as legal custodians responsible for conserving and protecting the Ganges and Yamuna rivers and their tributaries.

Much earlier in 1972,the famous US Justice William O. Douglas argued for the conferral of standing upon natural entities so that legitimate legal claims could be made for their preservation.

“The river”, Douglas wrote, “is the living symbol of all the life it sustains or nourishes—the fish, aquatic insects, water ouzels, otter, fisher, deer, elk, bear, and all other animals, including man, who are dependent on it or who enjoy it for its sight, its sound, or its life. The river as plaintiff speaks for the ecological unit of life that is part of it.”

Bolivia is currently embroiled in a widespread water shortage due to the disappearance of glaciers, which attest to the wisdom of formulating in 2012 the Law on the Rights of Mother Earth which includes the right to water.

“Guyanese society has been too complacent in failing to appreciate that our proudest boast, namely, of being the ‘Land of Many Waters’ is in danger of  becoming a historical footnote.  The transformational energies required to address this situation need to take many forms,” the GHRA said.

The human rights body noted that in addition to the initiative announced by the Ministry of Natural Resources, referred to earlier, it is encouraging more purposeful climate action in Guyana.
The proposed constitutional reform process, the GHRA said,provides an opportunity for a stronger and more explicit constitutional protection for non-human and bio-diverse forms of life.