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by Haiti Grassroots Watch and Inter Press Service
The population of Cardouche, a small
village about 12 kilometers south of Cap-Haïtien in Haiti’s
North department, is nervous about three new mining exploitation
permits granted last December in an opaque and secretive
process.
Located near the Morne Bossa
deposit, the Cardouche economy is based mostly on agriculture.
Families work day and night to take care of their needs. And
they ask themselves if they are invisible to the authorities in
Haiti’s capital.
Recently, over a hundred people
living in Cardouche met to learn more about the mining industry.
One after another, they asked questions and expressed their
frustrations.
“Until today, not one single
member of the government or of the company has consulted the
population to hear our complaints or ask for our agreement to
the mining of the Morne Bossa deposits,” said Mezadieu
Toussaint, a teacher and farmer in his fifties. “If the mine
benefits the population, that would be wonderful. But we are
worried that it will poison our environment.”
Steno Chute, a member of the
Democratic Movement for the Development of Quartier-Morin (Fédération
du mouvement démocratique pour le développement de Quartier-Morin
- FEMODEQ) who grows corn, beans and sorghum, said he is afraid
of mining.
“Mining can have disastrous
consequences,” he told the crowd. “We are really anxious and
nervous. The water and environment will be polluted.” |
