Current floods in the upper and middle Mazaruni are being linked by residents with mining activity, the Guyana Human Rights Association said yesterday in a statement.
It said that residents of Region Seven claim that rivers, and especially creeks, can no longer flush excessive volumes of water following years of accumulated debris from mining, wanton clearing of bush and trees into the waterways and large deposits of tailings, sand and over-burden blocking the normal flow of currents. It added that discarded oil drums, 5-gallon plastic bottles and abandoned machinery were specifically mentioned.
The GHRA said that reference in press reports to farms- rather than community villages – being flooded reinforces the impression that the smaller creeks flowing from the escarpments of the Pakaraima mountains where farms are situated are badly obstructed. While the impact of mining is seen in the discoloration and slow movement of the larger rivers, the condition of the many creeks which empty into these rivers on which mining has been taking place for decades is reportedly much worse but less observable.
The statement said that residents have informed 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. The human rights body said that a similar combination of high rainfall and solid waste in 2005 generated lengthy flooding on the East Coast. This experience, it said, provided a wake-up call to a population complacent over the situation created by years of careless choking of drains, with plastics and styrofoam waste.
Rainfall in both cases was exceptionally heavy but not unparalleled and therefore, not solely responsible for the recent devastation caused in Regions 7 and 8, GHRA said. It said it is not coincidental that these two regions are the ones most intensively mined for decades without regard for the environmental consequences.
The GHRA also touched on the recent crackdown on mining in the Kaieteur National Park.
It said that it welcomed the action to clear the Park of dredges and illegal mining and hoped that this is the beginning of a systematic campaign to force the mining industry to operate within a regime of law and order. GHRA said that troubling complaints about mining in the area have been surfacing for some time. It noted that processing through the courts of those detained in the 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 asserted.
It also said that 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 said it 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.
