Saxacalli residents suffering silently at the hands of miners

… river pollution leads to rashes, diarrhoea
… GGMC ignoring complaints since 2015

By Shemuel Fanfair

Weeks after its devastating and far-reaching impacts on the environment were reported, pollution from mining practices in the Mazaruni region are still affecting many of the area’s inhabitants, despite many initiatives over the years to curb the scourge. It was on a fact-finding mission last month that the Guyana Human Rights Association (GHRA) unearthed “a ruinous mess of tailings and devastation” along the Puruni River for miles.

However, the community of Saxacalli, along the Essequibo River, has been suffering silently from this same plight. Saxacalli is originally an Arawak community located on the left bank of the Essequibo River, some 25 miles from Parika, East Bank Essequibo.
On Saturday when <<<Guyana Times>>> visited the small community, residents were up in arms about the fact that gold miners in several inland areas are disrupting their lives. So disrupted, that residents of the riverine community are to the point where children as well as adults have been suffering skin rashes and diarrhoea as a result of pollution to their main water source.
Community Health Worker (CHW) and resident, Helen Williams, told this newspaper on Saturday that the polluted water is flowing down from upstream locations.
“We depend on the rain water; the river water very nasty, that’s with the gold mining that’s going on… at Gold Creek and Tiger Creek,” she explained.
This ongoing crisis has altered the very culture of the community, which traditionally saw inhabitants using the river water in nearly every aspect of their lives, including drinking, washing and cooking. But this has all changed as often times; patients are brought in with flu-like symptoms, diarrhoea and vomiting and skin rashes.
“When the rain falls, it usually wash down through the creeks and then come out in the river and sometimes we find small children, even adults coming down with skin infections,” Williams also noted.
The health worker further pointed out that often times, members of the community are compelled to purchase water when their rain water reserves become depleted. She said she spoke to officials who visited the community and that she made a complaint in 2015 to the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC), adding that she never received a response since that year.
“The GGMC send up people to test the water but nothing else,” posited Williams, echoing the call for the relevant agency to look into the community’s concerns.
She noted that medical supplies are stored right at the medical centre, which caters to the 101 residents in the peaceful community.
In the Arawak language, the word Saxacalli means “Kingfisher” and the community was named after the many birds in the area. Legend holds that the area’s origin dates back to the early days of the Dutch presence on the Essequibo River. Anthropological studies suggest that Amerindians from the neighbouring Tiger, Groete and Bancari Creeks moved to Saxacalli, and the settlement was in existence since the days of the Dutch, during the late 1600s, with the community at that time serving as trading partners with the Dutch settlements from Fort Island and Kyk-Over-Al.
Like Saxacalli, another Indigenous community facing its own share of challenges is Orealla. Residents there picketed the Skeldon Hospital on Friday, calling on the Region Six (East Berbice-Corentyne) Health services department to secure a doctor for the community.
Located in the Corentyne River, the Amerindian community expressed grave frustration that they have had to cope without a medical doctor being deployed since November 2016. The protesters had made the arduous journey, some travelling some 50 miles to Skeldon on Friday to stage the picketing exercise, with the hopes that their voices are heard.