Kako villagers live in fear after mining standoff

One Friday in October last year, a blast from a horn shattered the quiet of Kako village and Nelvie Williams dashed to her boat and rushed to block a pontoon carrying gold-mining equipment from proceeding further up the Kako River.

The diminutive schoolteacher was joined by many villagers who in their canoes and boats rushed to block the river in a stand-off with the miner who, according to residents, was accompanied by armed policemen. From the banks of the river, children watched, some crying even as some others were in the middle of the stand-off in the river.

October 5, 2012, the date of the third attempt by the miner to pass Kako village, is a day that residents of the remote Region Seven (Cuyuni/Mazaruni) community remember well. That day the dredge retreated downstream but the miner had already obtained a court order which restrained the village council from preventing her passage. Following the October 5 incident, she subsequently filed a contempt of court motion against the toshao, Mario Hastings. Subsequently, as most of the staunchly Seventh-day Adventist community was at church services on January 26, the miner proceeded quietly upstream and began mining the riverbed.

A resident disembarks from his canoe at the Kako River while further up, others bathe and wash clothes.
A resident disembarks from his canoe at the Kako River while further up, others bathe and wash clothes.

“We are at fear right now,” Kathleen Andrews, the headmistress of the Kako Primary School told Stabroek News during a recent visit to the community. She was out of the area during the incident but said that the children are affected. “When I come back, I saw that the attendance was very low and I ask why and I was told this was the reason,” she recalled. The students constantly ask when the miners are coming up again, she said.

Williams, who teaches grades One and Two, is also the deputy-toshao of Kako. “[The children] were all out there and they were scared when they learnt I was on the pontoon,” she recalled. She said that the students were asking whether she was shot or in the lock-ups. “Every time they learn that the pontoons are up there, they expecting somebody with guns on the pontoon so they are scared,” she said. “Every time I move from my classroom, they always asking me where I am going,” she added.

The children also ask questions such as whether there isn’t gold and diamonds where the miner is from and why they wanted to come into the river. “I spoke to them and I gave them the history about how we used to be before and how the place is changing,” she said.

According to Andrews, it is not only the children who are scared. During community gatherings prior to meeting a government team last month, many residents voiced their fears at the potential consequences of mining the river. Many were also angry at the contempt of court matter filed against the toshao and were particularly upset that he could have been sent to jail when, according to them, he was the elected leader of the community acting on their behalf and with their full support. Hastings was not in the community on October 5 when the villagers blocked the miner.

“I feel that the government has no interest in us,” Andrews said while another villager added that it seemed as though the authorities support the miners. At the meeting, the government team told the villagers that a working group was formed to examine the issue but residents questioned how such a group could make decisions that would affect them without a village representative in the group or hearing their concerns.

Damage

Villagers’ fears of the destruction of the environment are manifold. The Kako River is their only source of drinking water and many do not boil it before drinking. In the early mornings, children can be seen fetching water in little buckets while a European Union-funded solar project pumps water directly from the river and pipes it a short distance to the central part of the small community to standpipes from where other residents obtain the water.

Nelvie Williams, schoolteacher and deputy toshao of Kako with some of her students at the Kako Primary School.
Nelvie Williams, schoolteacher and deputy toshao of Kako with some of her students at the Kako Primary School.

Residents bathe, wash wares and clothing and catch fish in the river and their fear is that mining would churn up the soil and turn the now clear, dark waters just like the muddy, yellow of the nearby Mazaruni River rendering it unfit for consumption. Like many others, Andrews also noted that miners dump human and other waste into the river and they fear disease. “We don’t have wells,” she observed. An attempt had been made to drill a well several years ago but that effort was abandoned after they hit bedrock, Hastings explained.

Aside from the environmental damage, villagers also fear the social consequences, such as easier availability of drugs and alcohol. The shops in the village do not sell alcohol and Andrews said that they fear this would come with the miners and the increased presence of “outsiders” will cause “moral decay.” Williams said that they also fear criminal activities and said that “the way of life of the people will totally change.”

Hastings said that in the past, Upper Mazaruni communities opposed the introduction of mining in the area but the area was open for mining anyway and they now suffer the consequences of an increase in the consumption of alcohol, drugs, prostitution and abuse. “We know that this is our last refuge,” he said, adding that “miners in general, they just don’t care.” He noted that river dredges dispose everything into the river while land dredging damages the land and creeks. He said that in recent times, an increase has been observed in water-borne diseases like diarrhoea as well as malaria.

The village leader acknowledged that some of the villagers do small-scale mining but noted that the resources are just for a time and they have been trying to emphasize the importance of education.

Hastings noted that although Minister of Natural Resources and the Environment Robert Persaud and Minister of Amerindian Affairs Pauline Sukhai were invited to the meeting, they did not attend. “People are not concerned about us because if they were concerned, they would have made it their duty to be here,” he said. “They accused us of taking our issues to other people but they were invited and I don’t know what is their reason for not coming.”

On the coast, Hastings said, people protest but when the Kako villagers raise their voices, they are accused of being anti-government. “Mustn’t we complain…? But when we do these things, they say we are bad…. but it is those in authority who have made us react that way,” he said. “We are not yes men, we cannot say yes to everything and everything,” he declared.

The toshao said that the villagers are deeply upset that lands they have been protecting are being “given” away without any input from them. “It hurts them to know that people out of nowhere would just appear and destroy the forest,” he said. “The people don’t want to live here. They just want to work, destroy the area and carry the riches back to Georgetown… they just passing and leaving and that is it,” he said, while pointing out  that “things could have been different,” if the village was approached in the right way and consulted at an earlier stage.

More miners

In January, a miner won a court battle against the Isseneru Village Council and the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission, preventing them from stopping operations on lands in the village. The court held that the miner had obtained mining permits prior to the entry into force of the Amerindian Act 2006 and consequently did not have to obtain permission from the community before carrying out mining operations on titled lands.

This is a new fear for villagers, who said that with the first miner already upstream, more would follow and a few are already seeking to put up claim boards. There are about 144 mining claims and concessions allocated on the Kako River and its tributaries. “Other miners, as we have feared, they are now entering,” said Hastings, who added that probably because of the court ruling, they do not have any fear. At the recent meeting, Lita John, toshao of Jawalla, a community on the Mazaruni River said that since the ruling a miner had set up operations on the titled land of the village without seeking the council’s permission and he said that he had obtained the property before 2006.

A woman washes wares at the Kako River, virtually the only source of water for drinking, domestic and other uses at Kako.
A woman washes wares at the Kako River, virtually the only source of water for drinking, domestic and other uses at Kako.

For villagers such as Abel Krammer, 76, the changes that mining has brought are not good. “Mining today is really affecting our lives. We are not happy about it,” he said. “Since the captain is in court, we don’t like how it is affecting our lives,” he said, while adding that the peace that they lived in before was shattered when they learnt that Hastings could have been imprisoned.

In addition, residents are fearful at reports that miners granted concessions upriver have said that villagers have to get permission from them before they could pass through their claims. The residents regard the land as traditional land and it is the subject of a court case.

Hastings is hesitant to say how residents would react should other miners seek to pass. You can never tell but villagers may block them, he noted. “Whatever happens, happens,” the toshao said. “We just hoping that our voices would be heard and something can be done to solve these problems… it doesn’t really look fair. We can’t do anything while our lives are at risk,” he asserted.

“I don’t really feel comfortable, I don’t really feel secure,” Andrews said.
Like many villagers, particularly the older ones, Williams said that the prospect of more miners keeps her up at nights. “I don’t want it to continue to be like this all the time. That is why we are seeking for help,” she said.

And if it doesn’t stop? “We have to fight. If they don’t stop, we are not giving up,” she said.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The waters of the Kako River and the Mazaruni River meet. Residents fear that the clear, dark waters of the Kako River will become like the polluted, muddy waters of the Mazaruni if mining is done in the Kako River.
The waters of the Kako River and the Mazaruni River meet. Residents fear that the clear, dark waters of the Kako River will become like the polluted, muddy waters of the Mazaruni if mining is done in the Kako River.

 

 

 

A dredge up the Kako River.
A dredge up the Kako River.
Ten-year-old Bernel Krammer, who was hailed for being brave after he shouted at a pontoon which villagers prevented from going upstream on October 5 last year.
Ten-year-old Bernel Krammer, who was hailed for being brave after he shouted at a pontoon which villagers prevented from going upstream on October 5 last year.