Breach of reservoir

On September 16 at around 10.30 am, a security guard with Chinese-owned Guyana Manganese Inc (GMI) at Matthews Ridge in Region One hurriedly alerted those living in the area that a reservoir had collapsed. In the terrifying moments that followed, as torrents of water burst through the area gouging out 20 feet of the public road, some persons were forced to climb trees to escape the deluge.

One of the affected persons told Stabroek News: “It happened very suddenly. We had to think fast but we can swim so we held on to the trees to help us”. The persons who clung to trees were eventually rescued by GMI employees.

Thus far, there are no reports of any casualty from the collapse of this reservoir and it is still to be established what exactly was in it, however there is no mistaking that this incident could have had grave repercussions had it occurred later in GMI’s production cycle.

Up to the time of the writing of this editorial, three days after the collapse of the reservoir, there has not been a single word from the Government of Guyana, the minister with responsibility for the environment, the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC) or the Minister of Natural Resources. From the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) there was a paragraph on its Facebook page on the day of the collapse and drone footage of the breached reservoir.

The EPA stated as follows: “The EPA was earlier today (12:15h) notified of a breached reservoir (not tailings dam) known as Pakera Lake, at Guyana Manganese Inc. (GMI) Matthews Ridge operation. An EPA Emergency Team was dispatched to the area at approximately 16:30h to assess the situation. While it was determined that there was no immediate environmental threat, further details will follow. Our thanks to ASL for assistance with our emergency charter flight to the area”.

The EPA appeared keen to emphasise that it was not a tailings dam that had collapsed and consequently there was no need for any undue concern about the contents that coursed through the area. No one, not least, the EPA can make assumptions about what exactly GMI had been utilising the reservoir for. A resident who spoke to this newspaper stated that GMI had been given permission to transform the recreational Pakera Lake into a reservoir to wash mud off the ore. Aside from the question of whether GMI should have been granted use of the Pakera Lake it has not been established whether the company had been decanting any mining waste and other materials into it. The EPA would therefore be well advised to treat the contents of the reservoir as if it could be potentially hazardous to ground water and other water bodies in the area.

What is shocking about the collapse of this reservoir is the apparent cavalier approach by the regulatory authorities to mining operations despite the growing warnings that have arisen over the need to take account of the sprawling oil extraction activities offshore and the patent lack of capacity to monitor these and to enforce remedial measures where necessary.

On the compromising of the reservoir one would have expected an immediate account from the government, the EPA and the GGMC on the terms of the agreement for the use of the reservoir and the safety considerations that had been incorporated to prevent exactly what occurred on September 19. One would have also expected that GMI would have been summoned to provide answers and to have an immediate review of its operations. Thus far the only testimony of the possible reckless handling of the reservoir by GMI has come from residents of the area who said that they were not surprised at the collapse as they had warned the company that this was a possibility.

Noreen Bess, a councillor of the Port Kaituma/Matthews Ridge/Arakaka Neighbourhood Democratic Council (NDC) told Stabroek News: “The water was reasonably high like 10 feet or more than what it was built to hold. I was saying that after I saw it and when the rain started falling, I spoke about it and because I did, everybody tried to make me the enemy but I asked them to release some of the water even if it was for an hour or two and then lock it. But they did not and this happened. They had only started to wash the mud off the manganese, when this happened”.

Another resident of Matthews Ridge, Carl Fraser, said that the reservoir was constructed just a little over a year ago and the collapse calls into question the quality of the work done by GMI. The residents have begun pointing at the obvious issues even if the government which regularly flaunts its reputed environmental credentials is missing in action.

What is more astounding about what transpired on September 19 is that GMI is a subsidiary of Bosai Minerals Group of China which currently runs the Linden bauxite mining operations and which has experienced severe tailings ponds problems.

Just months ago, on June 18, Bosai’s East Montgomery Mines, Linden tailings dam collapsed resulting in flooding in the area. Residents at Three Friends Mines, Coomacka and Maria Elizabeth were affected after a road was severed. In the days that followed Bosai disclaimed responsibility for the breach and sought to cast blame on the blockage of an outflow channel from a mined area belonging to the LINMINE Secretariat/NICIL. A Bosai spokesperson said that this channel appeared to have been blocked and bridged for access to a scrap metal store, called the “Rehab Area”. That argument could however not spare Bosai from being held accountable for a breach of the tailings pond which under any circumstance would be considered a serious matter.

In what could be a likely indicator that nothing will be done about the September 16 collapse at Pakera, there has been no known definitive report from the government, the EPA, the Ministry of Natural Resources or the GGMC on what exactly transpired at the East Montgomery Mines tailings pond on June 18 when a wall of water crashed through the area. In this case, there would have been well-founded concerns that the water would have contained toxic material from bauxite mining and samples should have been taken from the affected areas to determine whether there was any danger to residents. No such thing has been done. It is as if this government is not even feigning interest in the integrity of tailings ponds and other mining infrastructure such as the Pakera reservoir and the inherent danger they pose to surrounding communities.

On 10th January 2020, the EPA, then under the leadership of Dr Vincent Adams, had ordered Bosai to halt the discharge of water into its tailings pond after a breach of it led to the flooding of the yards of six residents of the Linden community of Noitgedacht.

Bosai was fined $1 million for the breach, which Mr Adams had said was related to another environmental incident at the same operation in November of 2019, for which the bauxite company was also fined $1 million.

It is clear that Bosai has problems with managing its tailings ponds and other mining infrastructure such as the Pakera reservoir. It is also abundantly evident that this can only get worse under a government that doesn’t want good environmental stewardship to get in the way of profits and `development’.

It appears that the current administration has not boned up on the August 19, 1995 collapse of the Omai Gold Mines Limited tailings dam which released cyanide-tainted slurry into the Omai Creek and then the Essequibo River necessitating the declaration of an environmental disaster zone. It must be said that the jury is still out on the long-term repercussions of that disaster.

The recent incidents associated with Bosai betray a government and regulatory agencies that show no interest in the defence of the environment as so starkly exposed by their rationalising of the ripping up of acres of protected mangroves on the West Demerara. The government’s pretence at being solicitous of the health of the environment has now been well exposed.