Environmental audit to Kori complica Kollo because Inti Raymi faces comunarios

Radio Pío 12 - [ 04.09.05 - 23:50 ]
The situation of Inti Raymi is in conflict. The communities orureñas denounce existence of irregularities. But the company declared that it is in agreement with the accomplishment of a work of that type.

Oruro, 4 of September of 2005. - The situation of Inti Raymi is in conflict. The company declared that it is in agreement with the accomplishment of a work of that type. But the communities of the low river basin of the Drainage and the lakes Uru Uru and Poopó demand that the work is carried out, but, nonlow the present process directed by the Viceministry of Resources Naturales and Medio.ambiente.

The company, the government and the communities want the accomplishment of the environmental audit, but the conflict point is that all do not accept the same type of work, according to an analysis that made the Andean Center of Ecology and Towns (STOCK).

The process conducted by the environmental audit to the mining operations of the Kori Kollo was originated in the demands of the communities of the low river basin. The 23 of January 2004, after two years of management, the comunarios managed that the Viceministry of Resources Naturales and Medio.ambiente (VRNMA) instructs the execution of the task, to evaluate the impact of the mining operations in the region.

The plan has happened through two licitations. First it was declared desert in September of 2004, due to the bonds between the company described like winner, ARCADIS, and the main shareholder of Inti Raymi. Newmont.

Second it was sent in October of 2004 and at the moment it is about to to conclude. During the second stage, to request of the company, the Viceministry of Resources Naturales and Medio.ambiente decided to change the type of environmental audit, replacing the Terms of Reference (TDRs) of the first call.

According to Inti Raymi, the only job class that must make is the verificación of cumplimiento of its environmental license. In the document it was committed to implement measures to mitigate and to avoid the negative impacts inside the area of his operations. It means that the audit that will be only made will evaluate if the measures jeopardize were implemented exactly.

According to the company, the audit of verificación of cumplimiento is the only form anticipated in the Law of Medio.ambiente and its regulations, reason why its exposition is within the effective norm.

The exposition has the logical endorsement of the workers of the organization, who even mobilized themselves to demand the immediate accomplishment of the task.

The employees also support the exposition of the leaders of the communities bordering to the operations of Kori Kollo, although its position is contradictory because they affirm that their towns are direct victims of serious problems of contamination. Nevertheless, to the back the position of Inti Raymi implicitly grants reason to him with respect to that a single demonstrated case of contamination does not exist.

Reaction of the communities

To their turn, the representatives of the communities of the low river basin reject the position of the company on the affirmation of which the Law of the Medio.ambiente only considers verificar the fulfillment of the licenses ambientales .

The delegates argued that the environmental audits are anticipated to evaluate impacts caused by any type of operation (Articles 109 of the Regulation of Prevention and Environmental Control).

In no side the law indicates the verification of the fulfillment of an environmental license by means of an audit. The verification of the fulfillment of the license is made through them periodic inspection of the respective authority, in this case the Prefecture of Oruro. Fulfilling the legal norm, the environmental person in charge, like result of his periodic inspection, would have to know if the company fulfilled or not with the agreed thing.

The comunarios think that it is inadmissible that it must instruct an audit to find out just the subject, which supposes that it has not been made any type of monitoreo and control on the company.

The subject of the inspection arose to evaluate the impacts caused by the company in the low river basin. Which in certain form is afraid that the repercussions are negative, was demonstrated in the report of inspection of 19 of December of 2002, carried out by the Direction of Medio.ambiente of the Prefecture of Oruro, whose data were endorsed with the environmental studies of the communities of Santo Tomás, lake Uru Uru and Toma Taking, in the Saucarí province. On the base of that and other information, the 23 of January of 2004 were decided to make the environmental audit with total participation of the affected communities.

Irregularities exist.

By all it, it is incomprehensible that the regional authorities, contradicting their own determinations and the established thing in the law, have decided to change to the type of audit, taking care of favorably the order of the company. More serious still, the leaders of the comunarios denounced that a process of licitation and awarding of the task without fulfilling the norms of Law SAFCO is made, under the pretext of which who pays the audit is the company and not the State.

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