Upper Mazaruni rivers devastated by mining pollution – GHRA

The Guyana Human Rights Association (GHRA) has sounded an alarm over the pollution of rivers in the Upper Mazaruni area, in Region Seven, which it says are under threat from reckless and illegal mining. After a recent visit to the Upper Mazaruni, the organisation said yesterday that the Puruni River is “a ruinous mess of tailings and devastation” for miles and is “unnavigable for large stretches. Guyanese gold-mining effluent in the Cuyuni, added to that coming from Venezuela, spews poisoned yellow effluent into the Essequibo at Bartica in such volume as to discolour large stretches of this ‘mighty’ river’s western shores.” It pointed out that the Potaro region, which has been “plundered for decades by mining,” is on a course to be reconfigured on the country’s maps.