South Rupununi council renews call for mining stoppage to minimise COVID-19 spread
Noting the ease with which Region Nine’s first confirmed case of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) entered several communities in the South Rupununi area, members of the South Rupununi District Council (SRDC) are calling on the government to halt all mining practices in order to prevent the deadly disease from making its way into those communities.
“The South Rupununi District Council, the representative institution of the 21 communities in the South Rupununi, expresses grave concern over the undermining of Village Councils’ efforts to keep the deadly COVID-19 out of our villages, particularly by the continuous influx of miners into our villages en route to the Wakadanao and Marudi gold mines and also business people from Georgetown. We find this to be disrespectful and a violation of our right to safeguard the wellbeing and health of our people. We are very concerned that persons coming in can bring undetected cases of the coronavirus into the mining areas which can then spread into our villages,” the council said in a press release issued yesterday.
According to the release, since the first case of coronavirus was confirmed, village councils have been working hard to protect their residents from the respiratory disease. They have implemented a number of measures including ensuring that persons have access to update and accurate information regarding the disease, blocking 15 illegal Guyana/Brazil border crossings and monitoring the checkpoints and gates built to prevent persons from entering the various Wapichan communities.
The latter, however, proved to be challenging for the indigenous leaders, who wrote that miners have continuously given wrong information to persons guarding the checkpoints in order to gain access to the villages. It was revealed that during one instance, police traversed from Lethem to Shulinab to ensure that the gates were opened so that a certain miner can pass.
According to the release, this has led to a misunderstanding between village leaders and Regional Executive Officer (REO) Carl Parker. “We find the suggestions by the Region 9 REO that we ‘misunderstand’ our role to be offensive and misguided. The fundamental duty of governments is to safeguard and protect its people, and we have taken up our responsibilities with the heavy burden of knowledge of the devastating impacts of past pandemics on indigenous populations,” the release stated.
Meanwhile, it was also stated that the confirmation of the first COVID-19 case in Region Nine has highlighted the necessity of the measures that have the various villages have put in place, especially since the patient had travelled through the South Rupununi area before he was diagnosed with the disease.
“This case reveals how easy it is for the coronavirus to enter our communities and why we sent an urgent request on April 14 and 21 that the Government halt mining in the South Rupununi.Our request was finally acknowledged recently after we presented a copy of it to the Honourable Minister of Health, Volda Lawrence, when she visited Aishalton Village on May 8. The case also highlights the question of why Guyana has designated mining as an “essential service” and put the lives of miners and the communities living near mining areas at risk.
We therefore again repeat our urgent request for support in this cause by the Government and relevant agencies to protect our people and to minimise the infiltration and spread of COVID-19 into Wapichan communities. In particular, we demand that mining be halted for the duration of the public health crisis and that our authority to monitor entry and access into our territory be respected,” the release further stated.