FLOODS, ILLEGAL MINING & CLIMATE CHANGE GUARANTEES

Jun 02, 2017 Letters

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Dear Editor,
For some years ‘water wars’ have been predicted in various parts of the world. Guyana was never thought to be part of that debate. However, the current struggle between the dominant mining interests preserving their privilege of mining irrespective of the environmental consequences to rivers and the rights of the current and future generation of access to potable fresh water contains all the characteristics of an embryonic water war.
Current floods in the upper and middle Mazaruni are being linked by residents with mining activity. In particular, residents of the Region claim that rivers, and especially creeks, can no longer remove excessive volumes of water following years of accumulated debris from mining, haphazard clearing of bush and trees into the waterways and large deposits of tailings, sand and over-burden blocking the normal flow of river currents. Discarded oil drums, 5-gallon plastic bottles, discarded machinery, were specifically mentioned.
Reference in press reports to farms- rather than community villages – being flooded reinforces the impression that the smaller creeks emanating from the escarpments of the Pakaraima mountains where farms are situated are badly obstructed. While the impact of mining is evident in the discoloration and sluggishness of the larger rivers, the condition of the many creeks which feed into these rivers on which mining has been taking place for decades is reportedly much worse, but less observable.
Residents have informed the Guyana Human Rights Association (GHRA) that they believe the flooding to be a combination of excessive rainfall and the declining capacity of rivers to accommodate the volume of water. A similar combination of high rainfall and solid waste in 2005 generated prolonged flooding on the East Coast of Guyana. This experience provided a wake-up call to a coastal population complacent over the lethal situation created by years of careless choking of drains, trenches and canals with plastics and styrofoam waste.
Rainfall in both cases were exceptionally heavy but not unparalleled and therefore, not solely responsible for the recent devastation caused in Regions 7 and 8. It is not coincidental that these two Regions should be the ones most intensively mined for decades without regard for the environmental consequences to forests, rivers and all the forms of life that depend on them.
The GHRA welcomes the recent action to clear the Kaieteur Park of dredges and illegal mining, in the hope that this is the beginning of a systematic campaign (not a one-off public relations stunt) to force the mining industry to operate within a regime of law and order. Troubling complaints about mining in the area have been surfacing for some time. Processing through the courts of those detained in Kaieteur Park by the Protected Areas Commission has been prompt. Similar alacrity from the Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC) is also necessary in response to claims from the Amerindian Peoples Association (APA) that some, at least, of those arrested have valid documents. The GHRA is calling for these operations to be carried out in a manner re-assuring to those concerned about the welfare of the affected Amerindian families.
Should investigation reveal that invalid documents were issued to some of the miners or other irregularities encouraged by GGMC officials, they also should be the target of similar condign action by higher authority. Lack of transparency in GGMC operations is a constant aggravating feature of illegal mining activity.
The GHRA would like to believe that the intentions of the political leadership are aligned with the UN Climate Change Convention principles ratified by the current Government and its actions are ushering in an era in which national resources such as forests, water and life in all its bio-diversity is replacing the primary understanding of them as commercial commodities.
The current clamour for access to new mining claims by self-defined small miners is not being accompanied by any assurances whatever to the larger society with respect to environmental guarantees. For this reason, the GHRA believes the Government’s recent action is correct in resisting the powerful interests posturing as small miners, by denying them access to claims in areas which threaten the integrity of the Upper Demerara and Berbice rivers.
Transforming ingrained attitudes into more respectful practices towards water in all its forms will be a major undertaking. Achieving such change is neither inevitable nor a foregone conclusion as long as mining, as practiced on any scale in Guyana, remains largely incompatible with a Green economy, in whatever way that term is defined.
Executive Committee
Guyana Human Rights Association

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