Chinese manganese company in Matthews Ridge finally rebuilds dam it destroyed

Apr 28, 2024 News

---

By Shervin Belgrave

Kaieteur News – It took more than five stories reported by Kaieteur News over a two year-period for the Chinese owned manganese company operating in Matthews Ridge, Region One to finally adhere to the demands of residents to rebuild a dam it had reportedly destroyed in 2021 during its operations.

The dam was the main access road for residents living in Pakera, Matthews Ridge and it was rebuilt by the company late last year, according to one of the community’s representatives.

Although the residents are grateful that the Chinese company finally crumbled to their demands and rebuilt the dam, they are still not satisfied with the standard of work and fear that it could collapse again.

The representative who requested anonymity told Kaieteur News in a recent interview that, “The bridge fix since last year but it is not the right bridge, we are still trying to get them to replicate the original structure, it is just a short bridge they use there”.

Kaietuer News was able to look at the work that was done and although it might not be up to par it represents a win because school children can safely walk across the bridge, pensioners too no longer fear breaking a limb or falling overboard when they go to collect their pension or visit the hospital.

The situation was troubling for the residents of Panera since September 2021 when the dam first broke away causing severe floods in Matthews Ridge.

Residents had alleged that the previous Canadian owners of the company registered as the Guyana Manganese Inc.  (GMI) had constructed the dam for the purpose of getting water to their washing plant but it was reportedly constructed with a small koker underneath for the water to flow out when it starts to “buildup”.

When the Chinese took over, the residents said they decided to block the koker to make a huge reservoir. This allegedly caused the water pressure to build up and it eventually split the dam into two, washing away a huge section.

The company after the disaster had promised to assess the situation and rebuild the dam but it never did anything until 2022.

In August that year they erected a concrete structure partially repairing the dam, but it broke away again.

Since then, the company, according to the residents, never paid any more attention to the dam despite knowing that it was severely affecting the residents of Pakera.

The residents, however, did not back down and expressed their demands in the media.

When President Mohamed Irfaan Ali visited Matthews Ridge in December 2022 they complained to him about the company’s reluctance to rebuild the dam.

Kaieteur News reported the story. According to the article published, during President Ali’s visit, the residents said that they had asked the company to fix it because there are elderly people and little children living in that area that can be injured while crossing over a makeshift bridge that was placed across the broken dam.

They claimed that the company refused to do so and further alleged that the then General Manager of the company, Jason Wong would tell them, “You can’t tell us what to fix”.

When confronted by the President at the meeting Kaieteur News understands that the General Manager told the president that his company is only required to fix areas that are part of its contract, but President Ali reportedly replied, “If you break the people dam then you got to fix it”.

A statement by the Department of Public Information (DPI) had reported that the President had also expressed his disappointment with the Manganese Company for not maintaining the roads in the area.

President Ali was quoted as saying, “I would not accept the company not fulfilling its corporate social responsibilities. I am making it very clear that the investors need to step-up their game and fulfill their responsibility to this community”.

GMI had reportedly promised to fix the dam and honour its responsibility, but months passed, and it seemed as if the President’s instruction had fallen on deaf ears.

Driven by frustration, affected individuals invited Kaieteur News to visit Pakera and have a firsthand look at how the broken dam was affecting them.

Kaieteur visited in May 2023 and published a report in June of its findings with photos to support the residents’ claims.

That news report highlighted that the damage was so severe that it had cut off Lower Pakera from the rest of Matthews Ridge. The road that connected the two communities was completely washed away after the dam used by the Chinese miners broke and eroded the access to the community.

A body of water had separated the road into two halves and the only access to the community was by walking a few meters down steep slippery steps carved out in the mud of the broken dam and then across a small metal bridge that was not anchored down. After crossing the bridge, one still had to climb another few meters, this time up more slippery mud steps before getting over to the other half of the road to continue their journey.

According to Desmond (only name given), one of the residents, the makeshift bridge was only placed there by the company after repeated complaints, but it was no help. Because when the water rose it would cover the bridge making it dangerous to cross.

After this report was published Kaieteur News followed up on the issue with the country’s Vice-President Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo at one of his weekly party press conferences and it was then that he gave assurance that he would engage the company for them to rebuild the dam.

He was quoted saying that the foreign company has to fulfill the commitments that it had signed on to when it was granted the mining licenses.

Not long after the company rebuilt the dam and the Pakera residents no longer fear being injured because of the broken dam.

---

• company, destroyed, Matthews Ridge, Region One, Shervin Belgrave

---