“It’s fizzy, there’s this yellow color…it comes from the mine ponds. How do you expect the animals to know it’s polluted water? So they drink. And then they die.” In Tintaya, on the Peruvian highlands, cows are not the only ones to suffer from mining waste: contamination with heavy metals and cases of cancer are increasing among the inhabitants. Testimonies in this excerpt from “Sur la ligne” of July 6.
A third of its population lives below the poverty line, and yet Peru is not lacking in wealth. Its basement is full of copper, iron, zinc, gas, oil, gold, silver… which hardly benefit the inhabitants. The team of the magazine “Sur la ligne” went to investigate in the province of Espinar, a thousand kilometers southeast of Lima.
Perched more than 4,200 meters above sea level in the Andes, the village of Tintaya has been moved to make way for a mine, one of the largest in Peru, which produces nearly 10% of Peruvian copper. One of the residents of Tintaya led the journalists through the Peruvian Altiplano, to the edge of the gigantic crater partly covered by turquoise waters. “Sulphuric acid residues, explains Vidal Merma, and other substances the company uses to extract copper, gold and other metals.”
Below the mine, a stream waters the surrounding farms, such as the one where Vidal grew up. According to the latter, this water, carbonated and of a suspicious yellow color, has been decimating the herds for several years. Just last week, his father found two dead cows.
“Over time, I will get sick. I think my children already are.”
Jessica, market gardener in Tintayain “On the line”
This polluted water is also used for crops. “We don’t have another”, breathes Jessica, who uses it to water her strawberry plants and her lettuces. Her children, aged 10 and 6, suffer from intestinal disorders and chronic headaches. His father has just died of throat cancer, like several of his neighbors. “In this whole area, it is a growing phenomenon, cancer”, explains Vidal.
“We would be more than 1,700 in the region to have heavy metals in the body.”
Vidal Merma, resident of Tintayain “On the line”
Vidal told reporters from “Sur la ligne” the results of the blood tests of several residents, including members of his family. The team went to show them to a specialist in the capital. Toxicologist, specialist in the effects of pollution on health, Dr. Fernando Osores knows the file well. He slammed the door of a commission of inquiry for the Peruvian National Institute of Health which sought, according to him, to stifle results which did not suit him.
Faced with the analyzes of a teenager, whose “nervous system has not matured and [qu’ils] are already bombarding with a carcinogen and a highly toxic poison”, he is choking. “Arsenic. This is unacceptable !” Naturally present in the rock of the Andes, it is released in large quantities by the mine.
Willingness to stifle the file, corruption?
For its part, the mining company relies on studies carried out by state institutions to cast doubt on the link between its activity and the presence of heavy metals in the water. It adds that it has paid 320 million euros in 2021, and specifies that in addition to its taxes, there is an annual voluntary contribution equivalent to 3% of its profits. A mountain of money whose color Tintaya has never seen… The word “corruption” is on everyone’s lips, and on the walls, inscriptions proclaim “Yes to life, no to mining” or “Life is worth more than copper”.
The health consequences of mining activity, a pillar of the national economy, nevertheless worry the Peruvian Ministry of Health. According to an official report, a third of the country’s population, or 11 million people, could be contaminated with heavy metals and arsenic.
Excerpt from “Peru: the wall of infamy”, a report by Djamel Mazi, Christophe Kenck, Yvan Martinet, Yann Moine, Olivier Gardette, Marion Gualandi broadcast in the magazine “Sur la ligne”, Thursday July 6 at 11:15 p.m. on France 2.
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