ENVIRONMENT: Peruvian Andes Water Project Faces Uncertain Future

By Pratap Chatterjee Reprint | | Print |

Pratap Chatterjee

HUALGAYOC, PERU, Jan 31 1997 (IPS) - High up in the northern Peruvian Andes, two groups of a dozen men are digging trenches with pickaxes and spades, as the summer rain turns the dirt roads into muddy nightmares.

Just over 100 metres below, a Caterpillar bulldozer is removing far more earth than the two groups. The bulldozer is one of several working on the land just above this village some 4,000 metres above sea level. They are digging for valuable metals, including gold, silver, lead, and iron for two local mining companies — Santa Rita and Santa Nicholas.

The two groups of men have been working for about a year for the local, non-governmental Departamente de Accion Social (DAS) to build a 25-km-long trench to supply clean drinking water. The project is funded by a grant of 1.5 million deutsche marks (roughly one million dollars) from the German-based foundation Misereor.

By collecting rainwater and tapping springs higher up in the mountains, the DAS project hopes to bypass mines below.

With good reason. The mountain that towers above, Cerro Jesus, is pockmarked with entrances to ancient mines that local people say run dozens of kilometres deep into the rock.

Some of the mine entrances have collapsed, but others are full of water with green slime. The water is often contaminated with heavy metals like arsenic, copper, and iron, and laced with cyanide and mercury, the two main chemicals used to extract gold. It is also polluted by acidic runoff from the sulphide ores exposed to air and rain.

These waters which make their way down the mountains have turned the rocky beds of local rivers the colour of rust. Local villagers say this has killed the river fish and threatens the health of local livestock and people who depend on the rivers for drinking water.

“We don’t get any benefits from these mines,” says Gerardo Quijada, the mayor of Hualgayoc. “Only 300 people work in the mines out of the total population of 17,000, and half of them come from outside the region anyway.”

But Quijada is still careful not to be too critical of the mines. He says the companies which run them recently contributed 3,000 soles (1,200 dollars) toward the costs of building a local school.

And geology has favoured his town so far. “We get our drinking water from the springs, but the towns lower down, like Bambamarca, have to depend on water that comes from the mines,” he says.

Jesus Ruiz, a resident of Bambamarca which lies 40 kms to the north, is more critical of the profits of the mining companies.

“Some people have to walk for two hours to get clean water,” he says. “This project is very important to us.” Ruiz has worked as an organiser for Rondas Campesinos (Farmer Patrols), a group representing local farmers that has campaigned against the pollution caused by the mines.

Other cities and villages in the region face similar problems.

The water supply for Cajamarca, 100 kms to the south, is affected by a new mine, named Yanacocha, which uses cyanide to extract the valuable metal in the mountains above the city.

Local people in nearby villages like Combayo, Negritos Altos, and Yanacancha Grande, say that the Yanacocha mine has destroyed trout stocks and threatened crops, livestock, and people’s health.

But some people in Cajamarca are a little dubious of the DAS project even though they support its goals.

“First of all, the mines will someday want to explore for metals higher up in the mountains,” says Reinhardt Seifert, a German agronomist who has lived and worked here for almost two decades. “Then do you think they will worry about a farmer’s water project?”

“Second of all, who will maintain the project after it is completed in a year’s time? The local government has not taken responsibility for the project, there is no system to collect money to pay for maintenance,” he adds.