Guyana should be gearing for a ‘green economy’

Mar 29, 2015 APNU Column, Features / Columnists

---

The first principle of the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development states that “Human beings are at the centre of concerns for sustainable development. They are entitled to a healthy and productive life in harmony with nature.” It has not been quite so in Guyana.
The health, well-being and quality of life of the population in both hinterland and coastland have not been central to government policy. The People’s Progressive Party Civic (PPPC) administration has no comprehensive environmental protection strategy to ensure that human concerns are satisfied while economic goals are pursued ‘in harmony with nature.’
Guyana’s favourable geographical location and abundant assets should be conducive to developing a ‘green economy’ – one that generates human happiness in ways that are consistent with economic exploitation of its natural resources. A ‘green economy’ is one that sustains economic prosperity, environmental security and social well-being. It allows the current generation to satisfy its needs without jeopardising the opportunity of future generations to satisfy theirs.
The PPPC administration’s failure to embrace the idea of a ‘green economy’ and to promulgate a comprehensive national environment strategy is perplexing, in light of the evidence of climate change and continuing, man-made damage to the environment. There is no good reason why there should be so much disarray in policy, damage of the environment and danger to people’s lives.
Guyana’s biggest problems are those of solid waste management, coastal zone conservation, flooding, public health, and damage to rivers and forests by poorly regulated mining and logging practices. A strategy is needed to protect the population from hazards, to preserve the environment from further degradation and to sustain development.
Air pollution is a serious health hazard. Residents on the coastland close to rice mills and saw mills, affected by dust, have complained of respiratory illnesses. Residents of the west bank of the Demerara River in the mining town of Linden endured decades of dust pollution. They have all called on the Environmental Protection Agency and the Ministry of Health to investigate industries which discharge dust into the air.
Coastal zone management received patchy attention only as part of the government’s Low Carbon Development Strategy which sought to generate carbon-absorbing plants. The planting of salt water-tolerant mangroves along the East Coast Demerara foreshore, as part of the administration’s efforts to strengthen this country’s capability to prevent or mitigate floods, started only in January 2009. It is too early to calculate its effects.
Deforestation has been the most visible consequence of the ‘gold rush’ in the hinterland, especially over the past decade.
The mining sector is now larger than ever. Its sudden expansion, however, spawned a new ‘entrepreneurial’ class of persons with little mining experience and foreigners, some here illegally, with little concern for the country’s long-term development. Many new operators brought earth-moving equipment and introduced techniques which resulted in increased deforestation, riverine pollution and environmental damage. Many new miners seemed unaware of, or unconcerned about, mining legislation and regulation.
Mining districts – especially in the Barima-Waini, Cuyuni-Mazaruni and Potarao-Siparuni Regions –have been scarred by barren, treeless landscapes; mined-out tracts; discoloured, silt-laden creeks; eroded river banks; toxic pools of stagnant water and debris of used tyres, torn tentage and broken equipment.
Solid waste mismanagement remains the single, greatest challenge to people living in the city, towns, neighbourhoods and villages all over the country.  Municipalities lack the resources to improve the collection and safe disposal of debris and waste.
Marine litter – consisting of man-made, solid material that does not decompose easily, which has been thrown into the marine and coastal environment – results in a continuous build-up of refuse. Evidence indicates that the vast majority of marine litter comes from land-based sources such as municipal landfills located near to the coast, riverine transportation, untreated municipal sewage, overflows from commercial agricultural and industrial facilities and recreational activities on the coast.
Public health has been threatened by reckless mining practices. The courses of creeks and rivers have been altered by erosion and tailings. Surrounding settlements and farms flood during the rainy season. Residents have frequently complained of skin disorders after using river water.  Noise from the dredges which operate on a continual basis with pumps removing water from the pits working into the night and fumes of fuel and smoke are a nuisance.
Water pollution has been blamed for the persistence of diarrhoeal-, vector-borne-, chronic respiratory- and cardiovascular diseases. Malaria has become more prevalent in places where stagnant water in abandoned mining pits provides breeding places for mosquitoes. Rivers are the main, sometimes sole, source of fresh water for drinking, bathing, washing and for travelling to farms for hinterland communities.
Guyana’s mineral and natural resources, efficiently exploited and properly employed, would be more than enough to transform the hinterland into a land of prosperity. There could be enough money to finance the infrastructure, schools and security which are essential to the ‘green economy’ and which are the foundations on which to build an equitable society that is ‘in harmony with nature.’ There must be new thinking if Guyana’s natural resources are to be harnessed for environmentally responsible growth, the long-term creation of a ‘green economy’ and the prospect of a good life for all Guyanese.
(This article was first published on 27th October 2013)

---

---