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Police in the central northwestern department of Antioquia and the Regional Autonomous Corporation of Antioquia Corantioquia announced that they will take urgent measures to protect a waterfall called La Quebrandona, located in the Zaragoza municipality.
The officials’ reaction comes in response to a citizen’s video that went viral and was reproduced on national television. The recording shows a local visitor crying at the natural site as she discovers that the water went from pristine blue to muddy brown. The woman blames gold miners for polluting the area.
According to Noticias Caracol, following the release of the video, Corantioquia, which oversees all environmental matters in the region, visited La Quebrandona together with the police and took sediment samples to further investigate the causes of the disaster.
The agency’s deputy director, Carlos Naranjo, told the broadcaster that the type of sediment found there is evidence of illegal mining activities, however, he said that they could not find workers or heavy machinery in the area. Still, police are going to start a campaign to try to find and arrest the people who caused the damage.
“Only by completely halting illegal mining we will be able to restore water quality and allow the waterfall to go back to its natural course,” Naranjo said.
A 2017 report by Colombia’s General Comptroller revealed that 80% of mining operations in the South American country are illegal. The report blames such activities for the widespread devastation of important natural sites.
4 Comments
Exiliadoenelcaribe
This is the consequence of ILLEGAL mining as well as other illegal activities. Legal, responsible and sustainable mining do not cause these effects.
Miro
I’m 25 years in mining industry but this is heart breaking, I understand completely this lady and share her feelings. Illegal mining is a cancer in modern society and has to be erradicad at all cost even that will include political or social cost otherwise we are on the death path. Unfortunately, weak third-world governments are not capable to handle this situation and many times some members of governments or parliaments are actually profiting directly or indirectly on this illegal activities. The only way is to use the same scheme as used with blood diamonds – complete and world-wide ban on gold from illegal sources but…. will it be honored also by countries like China or India or will they smuggle this gold and “clean” it before selling on international markets? You should see what is going on in southern Peru in Madre de Dios area or Rinconada area, this waterfall is nothing in comparison with massive damage on dozens of thousand hectares happening there every single day. Hundred tons/year of mercury used in these operations alone…. When that will stop?
Restless Boomers
CIA has so screwed up Columbia that people are forced to do whatever they can in order to survive. It’s not right to destroy the environment, but had the US stayed out of Columbia, the situation would be very different. Columbia was a prosperous nation until the CIA, DEA, etc. had their way.
Soft Edge
gentlemen/ladies,
the comments below are not reflective of reality. the state sanctioned, ‘legal’, mining industry is at least as culpable, if not more so, than those in the event depicted here. there are hundreds of mine tailings impoundment failures over the past 50 years that have caused far worse and absolutely irreversible environmental changes to waterways downstream of those tailings facilities, not to mention the loss of and way of life for those living there. around the world there are:
1. mishor rotem, isreal, 2017
2. tonglvshan mine, hubei prov., china, 2017
3. new wales plant, fl, usa, 2016
4. dahegou village, hunan prov., china, 2016
5. hpakant, kachin state, myanmar, 2015
6. bento rodrigues, brazil, 2015
7. mount polley, bc, canada, 2014
8. herculano mine, regiao central, brazil, 2014
9. benavista del cobre mine, sonora, mexico, 2014
10 dan river stream station, nc, usa 2014
to name ten of the most recent.
this is indicative of a lack of care by the operators of these mines to appreciate, and to accept full responsibility for the right they have asked of us to bestow upon them; the right to responsibly extract the minerals from these deposits.
in addition to these, in my 25 years of working in the industry i have seen and heard of a number of minor failures within tailings facilities that have not been made public.
please be careful when commenting on attrocities like these. until we conduct ourselves to an extent where there are no failures, we are but hypocrites.