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We will not sit back and allow greedy foreigners to destroy our country – ‘Red Thread’
…ExxonMobil must leave country clean for future generations
By Davina Bagot
Kaieteur News – As American oil major, ExxonMobil continues to ramp up oil production in the country, the members of a women organisation, ‘Red Thread’, have made it clear that they will not sit back and allow their country to be destroyed by ‘greedy foreigners.’
On Friday last, Wintress White, one of the 40 members of Red Thread participated in a picket exercise outside the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) Ganges Street, Georgetown Head Office lobbying the body to perform its mandate of safeguarding the environment. In an invited comment, White told Kaieteur News that Guyana and its people are not benefiting from the exploitation of its oil and gas resources. To this end, she argued that the least Exxon can do, which is walking away with the major beneficiary, is leave the country clean for future generations.
A few members from the ‘Red Thread’ group were on a picket line on Friday outside the EPA’s Head Office in Georgetown. Wintress White (second from left) believes the regulatory body must do better by the people of Guyana.
She said, “We live in Guyana and we cannot see our beautiful country destroyed by the greedy foreigners. We are not benefitting, Guyana is not benefitting from this oil and gas story. They want us to believe that but we are not benefitting from it. The persons that are benefitting is ExxonMobil and its partners so we want them to leave Guyana clean for us and our children and our grandchildren and our future generations.”
The ‘Red Thread’ member was asked to weigh in on the fact that the EPA has failed to respond to a group of 54 citizens who had penned a letter, which embodied concerns relating to the treatment of hazardous waste onshore, among others.
According to her, “Their eyes pass us. Their eyes pass Guyanese because if was some other countries they would have had to respond to them but they eye pass us. The Environmental Protection Agency needs to do their work. They need to. You can’t have harmful chemicals in communities where people living and ExxonMobil don’t care a rat tooth about us. They (Exxon) don’t want to spend money and they are making money by the billions. Their profit is more than you could imagine, so their eyes pass us too.”
White even pointed out that because of the ‘greedy’ nature of the oil companies, they have refused to fulfill their obligations to Guyana as it regards full liability coverage for oil spills.
In recent days, the integrity of the EPA has been questioned by various members of civil society who believe that the body has been functioning in the best interest of the oil companies, rather than the environment and people of Guyana.
Just last month an oil spill was reported by ExxonMobil but to date the agency is yet to publish its own report on the matter. In fact, the country learnt about the one barrel spill through a Press Release from the operator of the Stabroek Block, Esso Exploration and Production Guyana Limited (EEPGL), the local subsidiary of Exxon.
Questions to the Executive Director of the EPA, Kemraj Parsram on when the findings from the independent investigation would be made public were not answered.
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