A sinister presence lurks in the still depths and murky shallows where clear, coffee-coloured water once flowed, but sick rivers now struggle, reduced to a gasping, mud-choked mess.
Brewing between the smelly sediment and stinking sandbars, and among the tumbled trunks and bony branches of a stripped, old-growth Amazonian rainforest, it is a gathering threat to all interior inhabitants, especially our vulnerable indigenous communities which traditionally depend on their natural environment for sustenance.
Under the sunlight, a tiny lingering, silvery flash or dot may surface of the strange shape shifter. In Guyana’s hinterland and across other rich areas of South America, acres of trees previously towered. Now, flecks of gold are water-blasted daily from a wasted, pockmarked lunar landscape of slippery pits and stagnant pools, or plucked as a fragment from the constant wash of gravel by the wrinkled fingers of thousands of artisanal miners.
Mostly mere dust, the coveted, hidden yellow metal was likely mixed by bare hands with the slithering substance, mercury, to form an amalgam. Manually separated perhaps with a cloth, the mercury would have been recollected in a bottle for further use, or maybe heated and the element vaporised, leaving behind a little lump of gold and traces of the deadly nerve toxin in the waterways, soil and air.
A menace, that has strengthened in silence into an almost invisible but insidious enemy, over many damned decades, it has left Amerindian villagers, some already carrying alarming levels, afraid to drink creek water, and forced to collect rainfall or travel long distances to remote inland drinking sources. Mercury toxicity is correlated with hypertension, coronary heart disease (CHD), myocardial infarction (MI), stroke and other cardiovascular disease.
Liquid and shiny, mercury or quicksilver is written as the abbreviation Hg, for hydrargyrum from the Latinised form of the Greek word meaning “water-silver.” Named after the Roman god, famed for his speed and mobility, it is symbolised by the deity’s winged helmet and caduceus (☿). This is the astrological and alchemical mark used since ancient times to represent the heavy, metallic element and the solar system’s smallest and innermost planet, with its dark grey, rocky surface, concealed under thick dust.
The Sanskrit word for alchemy is Rasavātam, meaning “the way of mercury,” while Raseśvara, was a school of Indian philosophy focused on finding perfection and liberation through use of the element. Aiming to transform base metals, create an eternal elixir of youth, and produce panaceas to cure any disease, mercury was revered by early philosophers and scientists who mixed it with nectars, herbs and other foods, believing it would prolong life and provide special powers. China’s first emperor is said to be buried in a special tomb that contained rivers of flowing mercury on a model of his kingdom. He ended up killed, after drinking a mercury and powdered jade mixture of pills formulated by Qin alchemists, that caused poisoning, liver failure and brain death, instead of the much-desired immortality.
Two millennia later, still seeking unrealistic dreams that can never be achieved, and courting mortal danger, incredibly, we slap it on our faces and bodies through ubiquitous skin lightening creams and as lash-thickening mascara in which there are small amounts as a preservative and germicide to extend shelf life. Most cosmetics and soaps, and some light bulbs, batteries, thermometers and medical devices with mercury are being banned, but mascara and other eye makeup remain bizarrely exempt under a 2013 international treaty, given there is “no effective safe substitute alternatives.”
The United Nations’ Minamata Convention is titled after the Japanese city where thousands of people were poisoned by mercury-tainted industrial wastewater discharged by a chemical plant, from 1932 to 1968, leading to crippling symptoms that became known as Minamata disease, which prompted insanity, paralysis and death in extreme cases.
Guyana is a signatory to the hallmark agreement, with President David Granger’s last September recommitting to implementation, reducing emissions by half, and eliminating the use of mercury by 2027. But the Guyana Gold and Diamond Miners Association (GGDMA) is on record that it will not support the complete discontinuation of mercury in the country’s leading industry and foreign exchange earner, arguing that ending the legal trade of the substance “will have significant impacts on the mining sector and the economy.”
Jamaica and the Dominican Republic are signatories with the Government of Saint Lucia depositing its instrument of accession last January, becoming the 102nd party to the Convention.
Just this month, the Global Environment Facility (GEF) of the World Bank launched a welcome US$180M programme for urgent action, to improve conditions and safety for miners across eight countries including Guyana, while slashing harmful mercury emissions. The artisanal and small-scale gold mining (ASGM) sector is the single largest source of such man-made discharges, responsible for the release of as much as 1,000 tonnes of mercury into the atmosphere annually.
Estimating ASGM accounts for one fifth of the world’s annual gold production, the GEF added, that as many as15M people work in the sector globally, including 4.5M women and over 600,000 children.
“Every year, more than 2,700 tonnes of gold is mined around the world. Twenty per cent of that – over 500 tonnes annually – is produced by artisanal and small-scale miners. These miners and processors, the majority of them in developing countries, work in often harsh conditions, without the protection of industry regulations on pay, health or safety, to sate the global hunger for gold for jewellery, investment and consumer products,” the GEF noted.
The five-year scheme is a partnership between the GEF, the United Nations Development Programme, the United Nations Environment Programme, the United Nations Industrial Development Organization and Conservation International. Guyana’s government and those of Burkina Faso, Colombia, Indonesia, Kenya, Mongolia, the Philippines and Peru are listed as partners.
As the GEF’s Director of Programs, Gustavo Fonseca pointed out, “From smartphones to wedding rings, gold passes through all of our hands every day. But for most of us the source of that gold, and its real cost, remains a mystery.”
The former Toshao or village leader, Eyon Boyal penned this poem in 2018, urging an outright ban on all river mining in Guyana.
It is with much interest I read the other day,
The government stop mining in Demerara waterway.
It is a good thing I must say,
But what happen to other waterways, do you think anybody cares?
Your only drinking water is murky,
Your white clothes are all stained,
Garbage passing downstream plenty
And bathing daily leaves you drained.
Young children in the water drinking same,
That draggers and smaller dredge workers defecating in,
The machines also doing their fair share,
Sometimes I wonder does the authorities care?
River mining will get us nowhere!
If we only continue to forget the people who suffer directly.
Additionally, mercury poisoning is already here,
You and I know who it will affect eventually.
Come on authorities, think about it?
I call on you to put an end to it NOW!
Not only in Demerara where it is closer to you.
But for all of the people in the other hinterland areas who are suffering too.
ID recalls in November 2014, “large quantities” of mercury were discovered in a chamber below the 1800-year-old Mexican pyramid “Temple of the Feathered Serpent,” along with “jade statues, jaguar remains, a box filled with carved shells and rubber balls.”
