Health or economic development: a mining town in Peru at a crossroads
In the Peruvian Altiplano, the mining town of La Oroya, once one of the most polluted places on the planet, hopes to revive its industrial past, which has been shut down since 2009, but not at the cost of the health of its inhabitants.
“The vast majority of the population has been waiting for a long time and hopes for the reactivation” of the foundry “because it is a source of life, of economy,” Hugo Enrique, a 48-year-old taxi driver, told AFP.
Since the bankruptcy in 2009 of the 19,000 hectare metallurgical complex which attracted the city built around it, there have been many empty shops and abandoned houses in this agglomeration of 33,000 inhabitants built on the side of a hill at 3,750 meters above sea level.
For almost a century, the foundry and its huge black cathedral chimney processed copper, zinc, lead, silver, gold, bismuth, indium, tellurium, antimony or selenium from nearby mines.
But at what cost.
“We got used to this way of life, surrounded by smoke, toxic gases, but at the time we didn’t know the seriousness of these pollutants,” Manuel Enrique Apolinario, a 68-year-old teacher, told AFP. who has lived since 1975 in a brick and wood house opposite the entrance to the foundry.
“Those who have lived here have been sick all their lives, colds, bronchitis, especially respiratory problems,” he said, showing blood tests revealing abnormally high levels of lead, arsenic and cadmium.
According to the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), in 2013 almost all (98%) children aged 6 months to 12 years had high levels of lead in their blood.
– “Environmental responsibility” –
In operation since 1922, the foundry was nationalized in 1974 then privatized in 1997 and taken over by Doe Run, owned by the American group Renco.
In June 2009, Doe Run had to cease operations for failing to comply with an environmental protection program and declared itself insolvent.
Thirteen years later, La Oroya would like to try to regain its glorious economic past under the leadership of its new owners, 1,270 former employees of Doe Run, who promise that their activity will not be polluting.
“We will operate with the consent of the population, with social and environmental responsibility,” said Luis Mantari, in charge of logistics in the new organization chart.
“It’s a unique complex. What we want, as workers, is for it to last another 100 years,” adds José Aguilar, human resources manager.
Some 14 million tonnes of copper and lead waste or slag are stored on site awaiting conversion.
“I fought against pollution, but we never opposed the operation of the company. We want it to leave but with an environmental protection plan, and if possible that the company be put under bell,” Pablo Fabian Martinez, 67, told AFP, one of the first residents of the industrial site.
“I would like it to reopen because without the business, there is no possible economy in Oroya,” says Rosa Vilchez, a 30-year-old trader whose husband is looking for work in neighboring towns.
– “Respect health” –
In 2011, La Oroya was still ranked the second most polluted city in the world, two years later it had dropped to fifth place, according to the Blacksmith Institute. La Oroya then rubbed shoulders with Chernobyl and its 1986 nuclear disaster or the Dzerjinsk chemical waste landfill site in Russia.
But since the smelter’s closure, concentrations of toxic gases have dropped significantly, environmental groups say.
A group of residents of La Oroya had attacked the Peruvian State in 2006 before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) for not having protected their right to health by controlling high levels of contamination and the Court has just begin its auditions in October.
However, the director of CooperAccion, a Peruvian NGO for the defense of social and environmental rights, José de Echave, believes that if “the expectations of the workers are legitimate (…) at this stage it is not possible to favor the employment at the cost of a major impact on ecosystems”.
“We are aware that the metallurgical complex is a source of employment. We do not deny it, but it must respect the health of the population,” Yolanda Zurita, a member of the Health Movement of La Oroya, told AFP. plants trees around the city to absorb pollution residues.