La explotación minera en el Chocó contaminando ríos y quebradas

Abstract

Mining has been one of the activities that has most strengthened the economy in the Colombian territory, especially in departments such as Chocó, where the population has made use of it and it has served as an economic support to be able to provide a better future for their family. On the other hand, the Colombian State has also made use of this activity to be able to have good economic resources by making concessions with foreign companies where they move especially to this department to be able to extract minerals especially such as gold, silver and platinum. These reasons have generated a series of pollution effects on the environment, especially the main rivers and streams throughout the region with minerals and substances that affect the health of the population, such as mercury and cyanide. For these reasons, the health of the inhabitants has been seriously deteriorated by the consumption of these waters since most of the region does not have an aqueduct to treat it to make it suitable for human consumption and they have to consume it directly from rivers and streams. that bathe the entire region. In any case, both legal mining that has a mining license and illegal mining are the cause of all most of the contamination of the main rivers such as the Atrato, which is the largest river in Colombia, the San Juan river and the Baud river. . In the same way, this activity has been greatly affected by vandalism and by illegal armed groups that have taken over some territories and have exerted mining to the maximum in order to finance their illegal activities, polluting the waters of most of the rivers and streams of the department of Chocó. Keywords: illegal mining, environment, mercury, cyanide, biodiversity, deforestation, community, region, royalties, exploitation.