Honduras: poisoned water

Berta Estrada and her family lost their home to make way for a new mine [Annie Bungeroth]

For Berta Estrada and her family in the Siria Valley, gold mining has led to increased poverty and has endangered their water supply.

Honduras, in Central America, is one of the poorest countries in the western hemisphere. More than half the people live in extreme poverty.

Yet the country is rich in resources such as gold.

Honduras’ mineral resources could be used to fund development. Instead, the government allows foreign mining companies to exploit the gold while giving relatively little back to the country or to local communities.

Berta Estrada lives in the Siria Valley where Entre Mares, a mining company owned by Canadian multinational Goldcorp, runs the country’s biggest gold mine, which is due to close next year.

Many in the community were forced to move and lost homes and farmland in order for the mine to be developed.

The mine uses the ‘cyanide heap leaching’ method of mining – a cheap way of extracting gold using dangerous chemicals. This method is banned in some parts of the world.

Since the mine opened in 1996 local communities have complained of problems with their water supply and the Honduran government environment agency has found water sources near the mine were contaminated with cyanide and heavy metals

Berta Estrada says: “The water is contaminated – it’s been tested – but people still drink it because they have no option.”

Wells are drying up or contaminated and buying water for drinking and cooking is expensive for local people, but the mining company is allowed free use of up to 220 gallons of water per minute.

Many, like Berta, fear the company will leave without making reparations for the harm they have suffered during its ten years of operation.

As part of CAFOD's Unearth Justice campaign, Honduran partner Caritas Tegucigalpa is campaigning for new mining laws which would help ensure that mining companies respect local communities and the environment.

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