Riverain residents protest against Omai
Stabroek News
June 14, 2003
Just over 20 residents of riverain communities on the Essequibo and Omai rivers, on Thursday protested against the operations of Omai Gold Mines Limited (OGML) which they say is responsible for affecting their livelihood and their health and comfort.
The group stood directly opposite the OGML’s headquarters on Middle Street and held up placards which carried such messages as; “Gas masks required”, “Honk! for Clean Air”, “No one breathes, no one gets hurt” and “No Environmental Justice from OGML”, “No Peace... Dilution Is Not the Solution to Pollution”.
Guyana Research Environ-mental Education Network representative, Shaffield Douglas told Stabroek News the group first travelled from Essequibo to Linden but police ranks at the mining town turned them back: “We were escorted away from Linden by armed policemen.
They told us that certain requirements for us to carry out this protest were not put in place, so we decided to come to Georgetown.”
Douglas, a resident of Riverview, said persons living in and around the communities near the OGML operations in Essequibo had not been able to enjoy life since the 1995 cyanide spill.
She pointed out that the water from the aforementioned rivers was used for cooking, cleaning and bathing and every aspect of the residents’ lives were allegedly being affected.
One 16-year-old girl from St. Mary’s Quarry alleged that the discolouration, clearly visible on all exposed parts of her body, was a skin condition she developed after the spillage. She said she was seen by doctors and underwent a series of tests and examinations.
“[The doctors] tell me nothing ain’t in me blood, is a skin infection.”
A US$28.5M lawsuit was recently filed in the High Court by attorneys for Richard Bowen and two other Essequibo residents, Judith David and Lilmattie, on behalf of themselves and approximately 23,000 other persons living in the various areas for damages allegedly “suffered and from which the plaintiffs continue to suffer as a consequence of the defendants’ bringing onto and storing hazardous, harmful, poisonous and noxious substances, namely cyanide, ...some of which escaped into the Omai river and its environs...during August, 1995, and the effects of such release continue unto present.”
