The Guyana Human Rights Association (GHRA) has commended the Ministry of Natural Resources for issuing five cease and desist orders against gold-mining dredges on the Puruni river, with the promise of similar actions against others in the coming weeks.
The Ministry announcement last week came after the GHRA had issued a statement warning about mining pollution in the area.
In a statement yesterday, the GHRA said that the accompanying announcement by the Ministry that a ‘multi-dimensional solution to a complex problem’ will be developed in the coming weeks opens up opportunities for a more sustained response to protecting the life of Guyana’s major river systems. It added that indications that the Ministry intends to include relevant civil society representation in this response are equally welcome.
While mining is the most urgent danger posed to fresh water resources, the GHRA said that it is not the only source of concern. It said that aquifers–the underground source of water for coastal communities – are also shrinking and need to be supplemented and added that the scale of the response must match the size of the problem.
“Rather than the object of respect, the prevailing Guyanese attitude to nature is that it is something to possess, dominate and cast aside when no longer useful. Other societies have (manifested) much more imagination and purposefulness, their starting-point being to recognize nature as a living being in need of legal protection similar to the respect afforded to human life”, the GHRA said.
Evidence of other approaches, it said include New Zealand which in 2012 declared the Whanganui River to be a legal entity, “having the status of a legal person with all corresponding rights, duties and liabilities”. Two years later, the GHRA noted that an Indian court appointed three officials to act as legal custodians responsible for conserving and protecting the Ganges and Yamuna rivers and their tributaries.
“Guyanese society has been too complacent in failing to appreciate that our proudest boast, namely, of being the ‘Land of Many Waters’ is in danger of becoming a historical footnote. The transformational energies required to address this situation need to take many forms”, the GHRA said.
In addition to the initiative announced by the Ministry, the GHRA said the proposed constitutional reform process provides an opportunity for a stronger and more explicit constitutional protection for non-human and bio-diverse forms of life.
