Over the past months, several Sacre-Coeur Minerals’ em-ployees at its gold mining project here have fallen ill and workers yesterday accused the company of “neglect”, a charge dismissed by its President Gregory Sparks.
Sacre-Coeur Minerals, a Canadian mining company is mining gold at its Million Mountain property in the Lower Puruni, Region Seven. Some 90 locals are employed at the remote location and beginning last November, over three quarters have fallen ill with diseases such as typhoid, dengue, malaria and even leptospirosis, employees said. Some have been treated at the Woodlands Hospital but the company has shown “no evidence” that it is tackling the situation, they alleged.
However, Sparks in an email response to queries by this newspaper said the reports are “patently false”. Following a peak, when 30% of the workforce was infected with malaria and since implementation of a plan to combat the epidemic, he said, the incidences of illness of any sort have reduced to levels “below normal for typical bush operations.”
Giving an overview, Sparks said that beginning in late November, an upsurge in malaria cases was recorded at the Million Mountain camp despite regular fogging and a drought. The company expected this to abate when workers were off for Christmas break but when full scale operations restarted in January, the malaria cases rose. Additionally, a few cases of typhoid and leptospirosis were seen, he said.
With respect to malaria, Sparks said that despite treatment, there was no appreciable decline in the infection rate and on February 12, the company adopted a plan to combat the epidemic, which at its peak, affected 30% of the work force. He said all men with even an indication of illness were sent to the city for medical follow-ups and the healthy men in camp were tested for malaria. Further, he noted, a more aggressive fogging was done twice daily and all unessential work was suspended. This was to minimize the number of men in camp while the “extraordinary mosquito abatement programmes” were effected and demonstrated successful, he stated.
But speaking on condition of anonymity, employees told this newspaper that currently a large number of the local staff working at Million Mountain was on sick leave. They said an unusual upsurge of diseases at the location began in December and continued into January, February and this month. Most of the staff had been infected already but after being treated, they are once again falling ill with the same diseases, this newspaper was told.
According to the employees, some have been doubly infected–suffering from a combination of two or more of these diseases–and others who were sick before have been reinfected. About 20 persons contracted a combination of typhoid/dengue, this newspaper was told. Many contracted malaria and there were a few cases of leptospirosis, employees said.
Workers believe that the company’s water source at Million Mountain, a “spring-well”, has been contaminated and the filter system is not working properly. This newspaper was told that water samples were sent over a month ago to Sacre-Coeur officials in Georgetown for testing, but when the matter was raised recently, it was revealed that the tests were not done.“They just… playing around with people lives,” said one employee adding that the situation is “critical. Nobody paying no interest in these people well-being.” It was explained too that currently, water levels in the rivers and creeks are low. However, they do not use these sources because they are contaminated by mining operations in the area. Brazilians, one employee said, are one of the major contributors to the river water being dirty and unusable.
Sparks told Stabroek News that Sacre-Coeur has always provided ample, clean, safe drinking water to its employees. He said a state-of-the-art water treatment plant which employs sediment filtration followed by sterilization through a series of ceramic bacteria filters, “which remove any bacteria, parasites, and cysts from the water, including typhus, leptospirosis, and many other water borne pathogens,” is used. Further, he stated, this treated water is passed through an ultra-violet sterilizer to ensure delivery of sterile drinking water.
Sparks said it is believed that the small number of cases of typhoid and leptospirosis experienced were either caused by drinking unsanitary water off-site, or from unauthorized drinking or brushing teeth using water from rain barrels or untreated shower water.
“Notwithstanding many educational sessions to acquaint employees with the hazards of so doing, especially during the dry season, and notwithstanding posting of signs at all non-potable water sources advising against ingestion, we still find that some of our employees are ignoring these warnings,” he declared.
An employee, stating that the company is not doing to address their concerns, said that they are fearful of returning. It was stated that with some of these diseases, the ill person requires a special diet so they were sent to the city. According to the worker, the company is still “trying to get its act together”. He said workers are requesting that a new well be dug and the filter system be examined, and if there is a fault, repaired.
Examining and repairing the camp’s potable water system was done, Sparks said. He stated that as the mosquito population in the camp area is brought under control, and as employees have recovered, the company is building the crew level back to full strength. “As men are called back to duty, the company is now requiring a medical screening of all returning employees with a certificate confirming absence of any detectable infection,” he stated.
There are several factors to consider regarding malaria, he said. According to Sparks, Million Mountain Camp “is one of the cleanest, most sanitary camps in all of Guyana”. It is cleared of bush, graded to eliminate stagnant water and grass in and around the camp “is kept mowed and trimmed to rival the best kept properties in Georgetown,” he stated.
Notwithstanding this, he declared, there are many porkknocker camps in the area with little or no sanitation and malaria among the porkknockers is epidemic nearly all of the time. “Though we discourage it, we actually treat dozens of cases of porkknockers with malaria each year as a humanitarian gesture at our medical clinic at Million Mountain. These infected visitors are one vector for bringing the disease to Million Mountain. Additionally, it is very common for people with malaria, including our employees, to fail to complete an entire prescribed treatment regime, despite dire warnings against failing to do so. As soon as they feel better, they stop taking the treatment, assuming wrongly that they are cured. The result of this failure on the part of the afflicted is a complete eradication of the parasite from the patient’s system is not achieved, hence they are subject to relapses, and incomplete treatment and eradication leaves only the strongest of the parasite population to reproduce, thus accelerating development of drug resistant malaria,” he said.
