Tintaya Copper Mine
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PROBLEMS: MINE CONTAMINATION
"This is not a life or us. We are suffering and we want to be relocated." Leonarda Ccapa Saico, a mother of six children from Bajo Huancane
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| Leonarda Ccapa Saico lives near the Tintaya Copper Mine in Bajo Huancane. She says the mine has contaminated her drinking water and caused health problems for her and her children. By: Diego Nebel/Oxfam |
Large scale mining projects like the Tintaya Copper Mine can have serious effects on nearby environmental resources. The mine can process copper in different ways, but they all produce toxic waste materials. Some waste materials are stored in huge reservoirs, known as tailings ponds. People living near the Tintaya mine are concerned that water seeping from the tailings pond is polluting their streams and groundwater, endangering people and animals. They are also worried that dust blown from the tailings pond is making them sick and ruining their pastures.
All people have the right to live in a clean environment. They have the right to be compensated for financial losses from the negative effects of pollution on their livelihoods, and to play a role in monitoring the environmental effects of mining operations on their communities. Oxfam is helping fund the training and other support required for local communities to monitor their own resources, document the environmental problems, and develop proposals for compensation.
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| Leonarda Ccapa Saico: "Washing my face in this water gave me this rash." By: Diego Nebel/Oxfam |
Leonarda Ccapa Saico, 43, is a mother of six children from Bajo Huancane. She raises sheep, cows, and llamas, and complains of health problems from contaminated water.
"Washing my face in this water gave me this rash one and half years ago. My children are not well. They have stomach and head aches, and I have head and body aches. This happens because we have to drink this water and use it for washing. My animals are sick and die from pollution. If we eat them we become ill."
"This is not a life or us. We want to go someplace else. We are suffering and we want to be relocated."
According to a community organizer in Bajo Huancane, 25 families rely on the river there for their water. He said that before the mine the river had trout and other fish and frogs—but now they are all gone. "This is why we want to leave this place," he said.