Meet the Company Suing El Salvador for the Right to Poison Its Water
Meet the Company Suing El Salvador for the Right to Poison Its Water
In an obscure World Bank court, a multinational mining firm is suing El Salvador for attempting to protect its citizens from deadly mining pollution.
By Robin Broad and John Cavanagh, September 3, 2014. Originally published in OtherWords
An obscure tribunal housed at the World Bank in Washington, D.C. will soon decide the fate of millions of people.
At issue is whether a government should be punished for refusing to let a foreign mining company operate because it wants to protect its main source of water.
The case pits El Salvador’s government against a Canadian gold-mining company that recently became part of a larger Australian-based corporation. When OceanaGold bought Pacific Rim last year, it identified the Salvadoran mining prospects as a key asset, even though gold prices have sunk by more than a third from their 2011 high of more than $1,900 an ounce.
The case’s implications are chilling. If the company wins, this small country will have to either let the company mine or pay hundreds of millions of dollars.
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> An obscure tribunal housed at the World Bank in Washington, D.C. will soon decide the fate of millions of people.
How can a single company be given the power to pollute by an arbitrarily-appointed "court"
that isn't even in the country that the crime will be committed?
