Contaminated water killing Kratie villagers

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Re: Contaminated water killing Kratie villagers

Post by CEOCambodiaNews »

There has been another episode of villagers falling ill, where the drinking water is also suspected, and locals blame Chinese mining. This latest poisoning has occurred in Mondulkiri, where the network of streams is connected to the suspected contaminated stream in Kratie.

Scores of Indigenous Villagers Fall Ill After Drinking Stream Water in Cambodia’s Mondulkiri Province
2018-05-15
Scores of indigenous ethnic Phnorng residents of four villages in east Cambodia’s Mondulkiri province have fallen ill after drinking contaminated water, a representative said Tuesday, as the death toll from a similar incident in neighboring Kratie province increased to 18.

Prap Chuob, a Phnorng resident of Chak Char village, in Keo Seima district’s Sre Chhouk commune, told RFA’s Khmer Service that at least 80 people in his and three other villages recently became sick last week after consuming water from a stream passing through the area that had long been used for drinking.

More than half of the 80 residents were receiving treatment at an area hospital after paying fees of between 200,000 and 400,000 riels (U.S. $50 and $100), he said, while others, who could not afford to pay for medical care, were resting at home and using traditional remedies to regain their strength.

“Those who are short of resources tried to boil tree bark as [a kind of traditional treatment],” he said, adding that, “in general, they are all facing severe hardship.”

Prap Chuob said that villagers are now afraid to use the stream for drinking water, and have no other source of water because there are no water wells, other than a limestone well, which he said is “difficult to use.”

“The villagers traditionally raise cattle, and their lives have become very difficult because of the water contamination,” he said.

According to Prap Chuob, the contamination was caused by a Chinese mining company that had been drilling upstream near the water source.

“This was done by the Chinese company—they use drilling equipment and other substances to remove stone,” he said.

In late 2017, after Chinese mining firms began to operate in the region, he said, six cattle died as the result of suspected water contamination.

Three streams run through Sre Chhouk commune—the O Chhao, O Ror Neng, and O Ka Tung—and all have historically been used for drinking water by residents. The stream network connects Ter creek to Kratie province’s Cheth Borey district, where the death toll from a river pollution incident that sickened more than 200 people in two villages earlier this month reached 18 on Tuesday.
https://www.rfa.org/english/news/cambod ... 64115.html
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Re: Contaminated water killing Kratie villagers

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Gold Mine Waste Blamed for Deadly Poisoning in Cambodia
2018-05-17
- Toxic substances including chromium and cyanide used to flush gold mines were improperly handled and seeped into a river, sickening hundreds and killing more than a dozen people in two northeastern Cambodian provinces, the country’s industry minister said on Thursday.

Minister of Industry and Handicraft Cham Prasidh told Cambodian media that the government will take action against mining outfits responsible for allowing toxic mining chemicals to seep into the water supplies of Kratie and Mondulkiri provinces.

Experts from the ministry examined the water in the river of Prek Te in Kratie and found chromium and cyanide. The substances were found at various mining sites between Kratie and neighboring Mondulkiri and the ministry believed that they were improperly handled and that rain washed them into the river.

Cham Prasidh repeated an earlier assertion, offered by officials in early May after over 200 residents of two villages in Kratie province’s Cheth Borey district were sickened, with 18 later dying, that some deaths were the result of the consumption of homemade wine. The minister did not give a breakdown of deaths caused by toxic mine substances or homemade wine.

Cambodia’s minister of health put the total number of deaths in Kratie at 14, while local villagers and authorities say 18 people died.

Shortly after the Kratie deaths were reported 80 indigenous ethnic Phnorng residents of four villages in Mondulkiri province fell ill after drinking contaminated water from a stream that had long been the source of drinking water for the area.

Prap Chuob, a Phnorng resident of Chak Char village, said that villagers are now afraid to use the stream for drinking water. The contamination was caused by a Chinese mining company that had been drilling upstream near the water source, he told RFA’s Khmer Service on Tuesday.
https://www.rfa.org/english/news/cambod ... 61901.html
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Re: Contaminated water killing Kratie villagers

Post by cptrelentless »

So did they stop mining four years ago or not?
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Re: Contaminated water killing Kratie villagers

Post by Gardiguy »

"In late 2017, after Chinese mining firms began to operate in the region, he said, six cattle died as the result of suspected water contamination."
cptrelentless wrote:So did they stop mining four years ago or not?
I read it as they started last year, but, who really knows. 🤷🏽‍♂️
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Re: Contaminated water killing Kratie villagers

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CEOCambodiaNews wrote: Fri May 11, 2018 12:42 pm Villagers doubt changing causes of poisoning deaths
11 May 2018
Hundreds of villagers in Kratie province were hospitalised and 13 died from poisoning first blamed on contaminated water and then methanol-laced rice wine; villagers here have another theory: chemicals from gold mining run-off.

However, officials have shot down the gold mining theory being discussed by villagers.

Pen Lina, deputy provincial governor of Ratanakkiri, says that officials from the provincial mines and energy department visited the area this week and determined that gold mining had no role to play in the tragedy.

“We arrived at gold mine digging areas, but none of the places were operating,” he says. “Those places stopped being operational about four or five years ago.”
Curious. The quote about the non-operational gold mines was (apparently) made by a Deputy Governor of Ratanakkiri. Why did he make this statement when the poisonings occurred in Kratie and Mondulkiri ?
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Re: Contaminated water killing Kratie villagers

Post by Barang chgout »

What even is a non- operational gold mine? I'm sure the locals would be leaving a mothballed mine site well alone. No one would ever think of doing some digging for themselves in the hunt for a quick buck...

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Re: Contaminated water killing Kratie villagers

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Minister links tainted water to miners’ use of cyanide
21 May 2018
On Thursday, Industry Minister Cham Prasidh announced that a comprehensive investigation involving experts from multiple institutions with the cooperation of local authorities revealed that along with methanol in rice wine and chromium and nitrous acid in water from the Prek Te River, the discovery of cyanide in the water originating in the upper sections of the river also contributed to the illnesses.

Prasidh blamed gold miners, who use cyanide to flush the shafts, for mishandling the deadly chemical, allowing it to run into waterways.

“Some blamed chromium because the chemical is in the pesticides farmers use . . . but weed pesticide does not contain cyanide. We traced the cyanide to gold mines – both licensed and unlicensed operations – in Mondulkiri province,” the minister confirmed. “[Miners] use it but there is no system in place so that when it rains . . . it prevents the chemical from flowing into the river and polluting the water.”

Cyanide can cause serious health issues such as a rapid heartbeat, shortness of breath, seizures and death.
https://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/ ... se-cyanide
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Re: Contaminated water killing Kratie villagers

Post by Barang chgout »

Do I win something?

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Re: Contaminated water killing Kratie villagers

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Barang chgout wrote: Mon May 21, 2018 9:14 pm Do I win something?

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:mulled: Congratulations.
You have won a year's supply of Kratie rice wine.
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Re: Contaminated water killing Kratie villagers

Post by Barang chgout »

Excellent! Drinks are on me folks!

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