Water
The Right to Water
The right of water is a fundamental human right protected by the right to an adequate standard of living and the right to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health under Articles 11 and 12 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and Article 11 of the Additional Protocol to the American Convention on Human Rights in the Area of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (Protocol of San Salvador). U.N. Water affirms that “the right to water entitles everyone to have access to sufficient, safe, acceptable, physically accessible and affordable water for personal and domestic use.”
All Haitians have a right to water, which requires the Government of Haiti to ensure that all people in Haiti have sufficient amounts of clean and affordable water close to their homes. Mining companies must respect this right. As of 2020, only 67 percent of all households in Haiti had access to safe drinking water, with that number falling below 50 percent in rural areas. Over years of working with rural communities, the Global Justice Clinic has observed that most rural community members do not receive reliable information about whether their water is safe to drink. Many Haitians, and especially those in rural communities including those on land under mining permits, rely on surface or groundwater or buy their water from private sellers. Groundwater is at heightened risk of contamination by mining and other activities.
Mining poses an incredibly high risk to water in Haiti, an already limited resource. Mining threatens the already limited availability of safe drinking water in Haiti in two ways:
By depleting and disrupting already limited water resources, and
By contaminating the water supply with chemicals.
Depleting and disrupting already limited water resources
Although the process of mineral extraction is the most water-intensive phase of mining, exploratory activity to determine whether the soil has sufficient quantities of gold and copper for mining also disrupts the quantity and quality of water. Exploratory test drilling results in boreholes being drilled, which alter the movement of groundwater and disrupt the natural flow of surface water to springs and streams. Disruption to surface water, the main source of water in Haiti, will likely reduce the water available to local communities and diminish the quality of the remaining water.
The process of mining itself requires massive amounts of water. Large amounts of groundwater is extracted during the mining process, which has frequently led to wells and springs running dry. It can take years to restore wells and springs after being run dry, if they recover at all. Numerous international financial institutions and development agencies have ongoing water and sanitation projects in Haiti. Mining threatens to undermine the work being done by these organizations to address the existing crisis of a lack of safe drinking water.
Contamination of the Water Supply
Water monitors in Grand Bois, North Haiti. Photo: Ellie Happel, 2016.
Mineral mining heavily relies on the use of chemicals which frequently contaminate water. Water contamination from mining activity can be deadly. The most serious risk of water contamination comes from the production of acid mine drainage. Acid mine drainage occurs when minerals like gold and copper, rich in sulfides, are exposed to water and air, reacting to form sulfuric acid. The acid dissolves other toxic metals and metalloids from the surrounding rocks, such as arsenic, and pollutes the land and water supply. This can happen during any phase of mining, including during the exploration phase before extensive mineral extraction begins. Many of the mining permits in Haiti are for land on or near farms. The proximity of mines to farmland and to residential areas increases the risk that mining will not only destroy the water and food supply of communities but also threaten the agricultural industry, decimating the livelihoods of rural Haitians. In the neighboring Dominican Republic, water contamination caused by the Pueblo Viejo mine has resulted in nearby communities depending on bottled water as their source of water for over a decade.
Delegation from Haiti looks out at the Pueblo Viejo tailings dam, Cotuí, Dominican Republic. Photo: Ellie Happel, 2015.
Water is mining’s “most common casualty.” Mining is too great a risk to water in Haiti when most Haitians in rural communities already lack access to clean and affordable water.
“We can live without gold, We cannot live without water.”
- KJM Press Statement