Conguimi ( Ecuador), 14 mar ( EFE).- ponds of water and mercury are the legacy of illegal mining in the Amazon region of Ecuador, where excavators without permits continue their destruction in search of gold, while the Government tries to recover some of these areas agreements with local communities.
In the small village of Conguimi, shuar ethnicity and lost in the Cordillera del Cóndor, which is a green jewel in the Ecuadorian Amazon province of Zamora-Chinchipe, the Government sealed pozas toxic with a yellow ribbon that warning of their danger.
Opened excavators to drill into the ground, where water, leaving the miners wore there same to wash the gold with mercury, according to Fernando Luna, the Prefecture of Zamora Chinchipe. environmental engineer
Close to there, in a brickpit in Wawintza, Efe was able to observe how about ten machines were the Earth in search of gold, in an area embedded in the middle of the majestic nature and surrounded by several rivers.
Is an illegal operation, according to the inhabitants of the region, in which the clutches of bulldozers drilled Earth without contemplation and have come to change the course of the River.
Moon explained that often land owners reach agreements so that the miners excaven their farms, but this activity pollutes the water and the same land.
The Government carried out operations against illegal farms, at the same time seeking to develop the mining on a large scale, granting concessions to multinational with technology that will minimize environmental impacts, said.
However, indigenous and environmental groups are opposed to that strategy, and this rejection manifests itself in a March began in Zamora-Chinchipe on March 8 and that reach Quito 22.
On the other hand, the national mining company of the (ENAMI) Ecuador has reached agreements with local organizations to restore areas damaged by illegal mining.
One of them is the Kenkuim Kurinunka Association, with 63 members, they restore some 400 hectares of Conguimi and surrounding area and then they practiced “a small-scale mining” in line with the environment, according to his Manager, Alipio Joaquin Wajari.
La ENAMI has signed similar agreements with a total of 3,000 inhabitants of the province, according to Wajari.
“First we will address the vital liquid, which is water, which is mixed with mercury, diesel and other products,” said Wajari, who added that they will then collect the mercury from the soil and reforestarán the area.
Explained at the end of month expect start its operations, once in February they signed with the Government an agreement indefinitely and exclusivity of exploitation, when “meet the contract” recover the lands and practice environmentally responsible mining.
“We are here, we are going to live here life, our children and our children’s children also, we have to treat the land as best we can,” emphasized.
The director of the school of Conguime, Domingo Ankuash, recounted that artisanal mining was there practiced for ten years, but in 2010 the Government her banned and confiscated the bulldozers of miners.
“The State considered that had been irresponsible and illegal mining,” noted.
Ankuash said that initially the miners had reached an agreement with the communities to reforest the area while they were exploiting her, but in the end they were forcibly evicted by the police.
“All the pools are the ruins that have been left with the presence of the State and of what did miners, said.
In his view, the State would have to be “regulated and recovered the lands” first and then have asked the miners that were, “but was not, simply evicted them and were not recovered”.
Although he acknowledged that mining generates work, recalled that before that it had “a nice atmosphere and a beautiful space”. Therefore Ankuash asked support to the Government to promote tourism in the area, which is “one of the ways that can provide to society welfare and survival”.
“Restore the land and offer (…)” “what is our custom, gastronomy and the rites which we do as shuar nationality,” he asserted. EFE
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