River polluting miners face stringent penalties - GGMC
SN, Wednesday, January 9th 2008
Following recent investigations of continuous pollution of the
Essequibo River by some operators who discharge tailings waste into the
waterway, more stringent actions against miners guilty of such breaches
will be taken by the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC).
Operators who continue with "grievous infringement" will also face the
brunt of the law, Minister of Transport and Hydraulics Robeson Benn,
who is presently holding the office of Public Works and Communications
in the absence of Prime Minister Samuel Hinds, who is out of the
country, said, according to a release from the Government Information
Agency (GINA).
"The GGMC, both the mines officers and environmental officers and
technicians have to go out into the districts, that is the watercourses
of the Essequibo, Cuyuni, Mazuruni, the Potaro, Mora and Siparuni and
take action to prevent siltation of the creeks and rivers", GINA quoted
Benn as stating.
The release said that the campaign against illegal mining will also
take into consideration the removal of shops which have moved from the
location allocated to them and which investigations have found "are a
haven for miners who operate unlawfully".
The GGMC recently seized equipment from three unauthorized operations
in Mahdia, Region Eight, illegal operations were discovered on the
road, south of Mahdia, and law enforcement agencies apprehended miners
who were found encroaching on Omai Gold Mines Limited's property, the
release noted.
It was also discovered that the law-breakers were those who have been
granted plots of land at Quartz Hill but who were dissatisfied with the
rewards from their operations, it added.
The Quartz Hill area is a 50-acre plot of land which was an abandoned
property formerly owned by Omai and which was auctioned to small and
medium-scale miners by the GGMC.
The GGMC has issued a strong warning to miners about unlawful
operations such as emissions of fluids with high turbidity into the
waterways or any other part of the environment.
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