|
|
Article: Pulling the plug: Canadians have long been exemplary donors - the `Scandinavians of North America'.
- Article from:
- New Internationalist
- Article date:
- November 1, 1996
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1996 New Internationalist Magazine. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
|
On 19 August last year, deep in Guyana's tropical rainforest, an earth dam collapsed at the Omai gold mine operated by a Canadian company, Cambior. Several hundred-million gallons of cyanide-laced water poured from a tailings pond into the mighty Essequibo River, the source of most of the country's drinking water and site of its principal fishery. It was Guyana's worst public-health disaster and one that was entirely predictable. In fact, Guyanese activists had predicted it five months earlier.
The Canadian High Commission in Georgetown was quick off the mark with a flurry of public-relations manoeuvres that included flying in government water-quality specialists ...