Dear Editor,
Your report on the apparent pollution of the Haieka River in SN of Nov 18 did not state what tests were done. It is good that the villagers of Chinowieng were examined by the team from the Ministry of Health, but it should not take weeks (until past Election Day?) for results to be known.
Dissolved oxygen must be tested immediately on site when possible, but under no circumstances more than a matter of hours after fixing the samples, which must be taken in fast as well as slow moving water at different depths. Even assuming our laboratories are primitive, there is no way the tests for biological and chemical oxygen demands (BODs and CODs) should take more than 5 days with rookie analysts.
The vacuous statement by your source at the environmental division of the GGMC that “checks were made and there were no reports of pollution” is symptomatic of a lazy government agency whose existence is to protect their employer’s reputation and money rather than the lives of citizens. What checks were made and whose reports said there was no pollution?
If checks were made, then they must have a system in place to test these waters.
Please therefore let them also publish what the previous “reports” said were the results of chemical (mercury, cyanide, oxygen, iron, pesticide, etc) and biological (microbial and immuno-) assays of the waters. Or are they waiting for more people to get sick to make it worth their while?
I thank you for following up on this matter; it is what a reputable newspaper does.
My articulated distrust of supposedly protective government agencies in this country began since simple recommendations after the first Omai cyanide spill were completely ignored, and a bigger spill followed, which generated so much noise that that mining company was easily able to drown out my accountability remedies.
Yours faithfully,
Alfred Bhulai
Editor’s note
We are sending a copy of this letter to Guyana Geology and Mines Commissioner (ag) Karen Livan for any comment she might wish to make.
