Dear Editor,
I note with considerable interest that a PAHO team is in Guyana to address the mercury clean-up at the GGMC Complex.
Could Minister Raphael Trotman be persuaded to have the team address the mercury content in the Cuyuni and Mazaruni rivers, at the point at which these rivers flow into the Essequibo River at Bartica?
There is not much point in the President’s determination to “Green” Bartica if the rivers surrounding the town are mercury polluted from gold mining operations upriver from the town.
The colour change of the rivers from the turbidity from the mining is very, very visible.
I have complained to the EPA about this on numerous occasions; and, indeed, I have complained to the Minister, but it simply gets worse.
Four of Guyana’s top tourism destinations surrounding Bartica — including the beaches surrounding Bartica — are threatened by this rising pollution.
We have worked very hard over the last decade and more to establish Bartica and its surrounding resorts as a yachting destination, and with some success. This, too, is now threatened.
Yours sincerely,
Kit Nascimento
