Dubai Telegraph - In El Salvador, a river without fish feeds fear of mining

EUR -
AED 4.049199
AFN 78.320972
ALL 98.977052
AMD 426.728332
ANG 1.97354
AOA 1010.355701
ARS 1185.894138
AUD 1.839076
AWG 1.985713
AZN 1.87484
BAM 1.957297
BBD 2.208119
BDT 132.871631
BGN 1.95589
BHD 0.415501
BIF 3250.745408
BMD 1.102408
BND 1.477237
BOB 7.556814
BRL 6.632525
BSD 1.093551
BTN 94.266247
BWP 15.436017
BYN 3.578854
BYR 21607.20093
BZD 2.19671
CAD 1.568131
CDF 3166.116168
CHF 0.930179
CLF 0.028766
CLP 1103.87442
CNY 8.090907
CNH 8.138248
COP 4877.329526
CRC 561.437072
CUC 1.102408
CUP 29.213818
CVE 110.349905
CZK 25.176359
DJF 194.741604
DKK 7.466264
DOP 68.603407
DZD 147.212761
EGP 56.518929
ERN 16.536123
ETB 144.199403
FJD 2.578203
FKP 0.866138
GBP 0.859641
GEL 3.037106
GGP 0.866138
GHS 16.951042
GIP 0.866138
GMD 78.820278
GNF 9464.36789
GTQ 8.434413
GYD 228.796039
HKD 8.560839
HNL 27.980529
HRK 7.538047
HTG 143.100104
HUF 407.721815
IDR 18699.048071
ILS 4.15302
IMP 0.866138
INR 95.237651
IQD 1432.615273
IRR 46425.168724
ISK 144.900101
JEP 0.866138
JMD 172.691305
JOD 0.781495
JPY 160.555843
KES 141.571785
KGS 95.972459
KHR 4376.367248
KMF 495.529683
KPW 992.14146
KRW 1635.152468
KWD 0.339398
KYD 0.911301
KZT 566.45584
LAK 23689.226875
LBP 97985.791856
LKR 326.981585
LRD 218.713322
LSL 21.298688
LTL 3.255125
LVL 0.666836
LYD 6.081735
MAD 10.450841
MDL 19.41694
MGA 5118.915359
MKD 61.525179
MMK 2314.378997
MNT 3869.197182
MOP 8.752213
MRU 43.292703
MUR 49.724503
MVR 16.987634
MWK 1896.250405
MXN 22.933194
MYR 4.965952
MZN 70.447863
NAD 21.298688
NGN 1714.223035
NIO 40.241693
NOK 12.009167
NPR 150.829419
NZD 1.990106
OMR 0.424375
PAB 1.093551
PEN 4.063063
PGK 4.515515
PHP 63.365877
PKR 306.973875
PLN 4.274977
PYG 8767.82564
QAR 3.986367
RON 4.977046
RSD 117.180473
RUB 94.642605
RWF 1548.29128
SAR 4.138554
SBD 9.175624
SCR 15.812046
SDG 661.989915
SEK 10.98934
SGD 1.488417
SHP 0.86632
SLE 25.090976
SLL 23116.950168
SOS 624.975197
SRD 40.627053
STD 22817.624209
SVC 9.569363
SYP 14333.024342
SZL 21.28457
THB 38.405149
TJS 11.881572
TMT 3.869453
TND 3.371094
TOP 2.581957
TRY 41.874311
TTD 7.416707
TWD 36.441535
TZS 2952.519256
UAH 45.047256
UGX 4059.123155
USD 1.102408
UYU 46.524742
UZS 14180.232074
VES 80.768963
VND 28778.366341
VUV 137.866566
WST 3.134379
XAF 656.462093
XAG 0.036883
XAU 0.000367
XCD 2.979313
XDR 0.816424
XOF 656.468052
XPF 119.331742
YER 270.503469
ZAR 21.699916
ZMK 9923.009466
ZMW 30.483731
ZWL 354.974994
  • RBGPF

    60.2700

    60.27

    +100%

  • CMSC

    0.0400

    22.21

    +0.18%

  • GSK

    -0.7100

    34.13

    -2.08%

  • BCC

    -1.9600

    89.93

    -2.18%

  • NGG

    -0.1600

    62.74

    -0.26%

  • SCS

    -0.4600

    9.74

    -4.72%

  • RIO

    -2.2400

    52.32

    -4.28%

  • AZN

    -0.8900

    64.9

    -1.37%

  • BTI

    0.1200

    39.55

    +0.3%

  • CMSD

    -0.1000

    22.38

    -0.45%

  • JRI

    0.2100

    11.47

    +1.83%

  • RELX

    -0.2200

    45.31

    -0.49%

  • RYCEF

    -0.0200

    8.36

    -0.24%

  • BCE

    -1.2100

    20.87

    -5.8%

  • VOD

    -0.1600

    8.19

    -1.95%

  • BP

    -1.0600

    26.11

    -4.06%

In El Salvador, a river without fish feeds fear of mining
In El Salvador, a river without fish feeds fear of mining / Photo: Marvin RECINOS - AFP

In El Salvador, a river without fish feeds fear of mining

El Salvador's San Sebastian river has no fish. The runoff from a gold mine upstream, already shuttered two decades ago, has long killed them all.

Text size:

Now, residents fear the same fate for other rivers -- and the creatures and people depending on them -- after Congress, at President Nayib Bukele's request, reversed a ban on metal mining.

Bukele billed the move as a way of invigorating the Central American country's stagnant economy, but environmentalists and river-side communities fear the potential harms far outweigh any benefits.

In the community of Santa Rosa de Lima, a two-hour drive from the capital San Salvador, wastewater still flows directly into the San Sebastian river from a nearby hill where a gold mine operated for 100 years until 2006.

The site is still being illegally exploited by artisanal gold miners.

On a recent expedition to survey the river with a group of environmentalists, community leader Graciela Funes took a sample of the water and shook her head as she examined its unnatural copper color.

"We cannot allow this situation... We are human and we all need this vital liquid," the 67-year-old told AFP.

In 2016, a report by El Salvador's human rights ombudsman found that runoff from Santa Rosa de Lima's shuttered mine had "severely impacted the quality and availability" of water in the region.

People who relied directly on the river had no option but to buy bottled water for drinking and cooking, it said.

The report contributed to El Salvador becoming the first country in the world, in 2017, to outlaw metal mining due to the harmful effects of chemicals such as cyanide and mercury used in the extraction process.

- 'Pollution, poverty' -

Last December, the mining ban was overturned after Bukele claimed El Salvador, a country of 6.6 million people, had "potentially" the largest gold deposits per square kilometer in the world.

The president mentioned a study -- written by unknown authors and which he did not share -- which found that mining a mere four percent of the country's gold deposits would bring in $131 billion.

This was equivalent to 380 percent of GDP, the president argued, and would "change the economy of El Salvador overnight."

But activists point to the San Sebastian gold mine -- one of the most productive in Central America for much of the 20th century -- as a cautionary tale.

The mine was shuttered after US firm Commerce Group had its environmental license revoked over river pollution.

"The beneficiaries of mining here will be small groups of companies, whether national or transnational, powerful groups that will take the minerals and resources from our soil and leave behind... misfortune, pollution, poverty," said anti-mining activist Vidalina Morales, who joined Funes and others for the San Sebastian river analysis.

Environmental defenders fear a return to metal extraction also threatens the Lempa river, which runs through several areas with mining potential and supplies water to 70 percent of the capital's inhabitants.

While mining does have its supporters, including from Salvadorans who see it as a source of much-needed employment, others worry it could be a dangerous environmental gamble with paltry gains.

For economist Julia Martinez, it is hard to weigh the risks as "we do not see a study that explains if that gold really exists."

And Ricardo Navarro of the Salvadoran Center for Appropriate Technology, an environmental NGO, said gold in the country was found in small concentrations of one gram per ton of rock: "much damage for little gold."

F.Saeed--DT