Articles :Up The Orinoco - More mining in impoverished, corrupt Venezuela and now in Canaima National Park, a Unesco World Heritage Site, and the headwaters of the Amazon
- Get link
- X
- Other Apps
Up The Orinoco - More mining in impoverished, corrupt Venezuela and now in Canaima National Park, a Unesco World Heritage Site, and the headwaters of the Amazon
12% of the country to be mined by government decree - named the 'Arco Minero’ which is mostly forested (64%) and is being termed 'ecocide'.
150 companies from 35 countries are poised to devastate the army-controlled ‘special economic zone.
The 19 indigenous peoples’ voices are not being listened to and no environmental assessment was undertaken. They believe they can mine their way out of trouble: so far the effects of mining on the Venezuelan economy have resulted in terrible poverty as they did not reinvest, nor till the fields.
Mining in this region threatens the water supply in the South Orinoco reserve because we know from elsewhere how tailing dams are prone to leakage into waterways.
The area is rich in minerals: diamonds, gold, copper, iron, bauxite and coltan (new one): coltan is particularly important for its strategic role in electronics and in the military sector, and has been the first industrial-scale mining operation to get the green light, with projected reserves worth $100 billion.
In recent years, as many as 70,000 impoverished Venezuelans have left their homes to make a living in illegal mines and some estimates suggest that a total of 150,000 illegal miners (including Colombians and Brazilians) are operating across the entire region.
Living conditions are difficult, worsened by a severe malaria epidemic originating around mining sites, as tree cover is replaced with stagnant water pools, the perfect breeding ground for mosquitoes. The entire area is managed by criminal organisations, and mining is affecting local communities and indigenous people in particular, leading to social erosion and to a drastic increase in prostitution, as 'wealth' is generated in the mines.
Venezuela is in the midst of a deep systemic crisis, with widespread hunger, very limited access to medicines and healthcare, and escalating violence and human rights abuses permeating all aspects of society. Its oil-dependent economy has been suffering since oil prices started falling in 2014.
The country plunged into a downward spiral, both spurred and worsened by widespread corruption and the mismanagement of existing resources and productive activities: over the years, the wealth derived from oil was not reinvested, but rather spent on imports or squandered; not only were many fields left un-tilled, the very oil extracting facilities upon which the entire economy depended had not been maintained.
12% of the country to be mined by government decree - named the 'Arco Minero’ which is mostly forested (64%) and is being termed 'ecocide'.
150 companies from 35 countries are poised to devastate the army-controlled ‘special economic zone.
The 19 indigenous peoples’ voices are not being listened to and no environmental assessment was undertaken. They believe they can mine their way out of trouble: so far the effects of mining on the Venezuelan economy have resulted in terrible poverty as they did not reinvest, nor till the fields.
Mining in this region threatens the water supply in the South Orinoco reserve because we know from elsewhere how tailing dams are prone to leakage into waterways.
The area is rich in minerals: diamonds, gold, copper, iron, bauxite and coltan (new one): coltan is particularly important for its strategic role in electronics and in the military sector, and has been the first industrial-scale mining operation to get the green light, with projected reserves worth $100 billion.
In recent years, as many as 70,000 impoverished Venezuelans have left their homes to make a living in illegal mines and some estimates suggest that a total of 150,000 illegal miners (including Colombians and Brazilians) are operating across the entire region.
Living conditions are difficult, worsened by a severe malaria epidemic originating around mining sites, as tree cover is replaced with stagnant water pools, the perfect breeding ground for mosquitoes. The entire area is managed by criminal organisations, and mining is affecting local communities and indigenous people in particular, leading to social erosion and to a drastic increase in prostitution, as 'wealth' is generated in the mines.
Venezuela is in the midst of a deep systemic crisis, with widespread hunger, very limited access to medicines and healthcare, and escalating violence and human rights abuses permeating all aspects of society. Its oil-dependent economy has been suffering since oil prices started falling in 2014.
The country plunged into a downward spiral, both spurred and worsened by widespread corruption and the mismanagement of existing resources and productive activities: over the years, the wealth derived from oil was not reinvested, but rather spent on imports or squandered; not only were many fields left un-tilled, the very oil extracting facilities upon which the entire economy depended had not been maintained.
- Get link
- X
- Other Apps
Comments
Post a Comment