The despoiling of Salbora

http://www.stabroeknews.com/index.pl/article?id=56526109

The despoiling of Salbora
Stabroek News, Editorial.
Monday, August 6th 2007

A few weeks ago we adverted to the potential danger being posed to
communities in the north west of Guyana from the careless use of
mercury by miners there. The extent of the danger is unknown as it is
an invisible poison until it begins to manifest itself in the bodies of
victims. Its out-of-sight quality makes it more pernicious as by the
time it is taken seriously by the government, the regulatory bodies and
the miners immense damage could have occurred. It doesn't have the
shock value of the physical destruction of the landscape which caused
three ministers - yes, three - to rush into Region Eight
(Potaro/Siparuni) to view the spectacle of the latest abomination
attributable to the less upstanding members of the mining community.

There, they witnessed for themselves the stark brutishness of the
miners' work. Three miles of roadway from Mahdia to Salbora were ripped
up by land dredges, one of which was still on site for all and sundry
to see. In tearing up the landscape and the vital arteries that the
residents of those areas rely on for travel, the miners also fouled the
water supply in the area and polluted freshwater streams through the
sedimentation generated. An expensive road now has to be rebuilt
through forest.

What made it worse was that this calamity was not brought to the
attention of the public by the minister responsible for mining, the
minister of works, the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC),
mines officers stationed in the region or by the Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA). It was disclosed by the Information Officer of
the Region, Daniel Fraser after the gravity of the situation became
known.

The recent history of mining in the country's interior has been fraught
with major transgressions and outright disasters. The biggest of these
was of course the collapse of the Omai Gold Mines tailings pond into
the Omai Creek and then the Essequibo River. The jury should still be
out on the long-term impact of the 1995 Omai spill. Unfortunately,
there isn't a jury in place. The company got off with a slap on the
wrist. Residents were left to fend for themselves in court and rely on
the "generosity" of the company. The impact on aquatic life in the area
is completely unknown.

Prior to Omai, it was the missile mining dredges goring the river banks
and churning up tonnes of sediment which clogged rivers and led to
concerns that some of them including the Konawaruk had died. This state
of affairs had led to regulatory bodies vowing that alluvial mining
would come to an end and only land dredging would be permitted. Well if
Salbora is an example of the land dredging we are going to be visited
with we'd better put a hold on that too.

Once the missile mining dredges went out of fashion we were back to the
widespread problems of excessive turbidity in rivers from mining,
pollution of downstream drinking water by human waste and the reckless
use of mercury in the purification of gold.

The mining community has not done a good job in controlling its
membership and it has for too long resisted the legislative tools and
regulations that were threatened to manage the industry. It has been
given, quite unnecessarily, a further extension before the imposition
of tailings emission standards.

But that can all still be irrelevant. It remains to be convincingly
answered by the GGMC why its mining officers did not immediately alight
upon this disaster in Region Eight the minute it began and stopped it.
It remains to be answered why charges have not been preferred against
these dredge owners and operators for so callously destroying the
infrastructure of the region and disregarding the well-being of the
people. It remains to be explained why the somnolent EPA was not
disturbed from its slumber by its officers to consider what penalties
should be assessed and what remedial work should be ordered in the
region to limit the pollution and damage.

Prime Minister Hinds has had responsibility for the mining sector for
the last 15 years. If this is the quality of the adherence of miners to
the law and regulations and the response of the regulatory bodies to a
serious problem then a very poor job is being done.

Salbora is a name that is not well known to coastlanders. Some may be
hearing it for the first time. Amerindian groups and concerned citizens
continue to complain that mining - driven by dizzying prices for gold
on the international market and the investment of Brazilian miners who
are not similarly invested in best practice and a love of this land -
is inflicting serious damage in interior communities hidden from the
eyes of the coastland and lethargic agencies like the GGMC and the EPA.
It raises the question of what is happening in Salbora-like communities
in the interior, whether mining officers are aware of it and whether
they are doing anything about it.

The despoiling of Salbora is also immediately at odds with two
omnipresent strands in the tortured discussion of the development of
the country: eco-tourism and the opening up of the interior through
roads to Brazil and Venezuela. Eco-tourism will simply not thrive in an
atmosphere of disrespect for the environment. Roads to our neighbours
will invite further uncontrollable problems if we don't even address
the ones that currently confront us.

Which frames the point that it makes no sense to impose tailings
standards on mining operations if there is no intention to apply them
or no alert mining officers to detect who is flouting them. Omai was a
wake-up call but apparently not a salutary one. Salbora could be
another. It is now for the authorities to act and maybe they might also
remember the Region One communities which could be at risk for mercury
poisoning.