The Red River Below the Gold Mine

The Porgera gold mine in the PNG highlands discharges mine waste directly into the Pongema river at an average of over 14,000 tonnes a day — riverine tailings disposal, a practice so damaging that of roughly 2,500 industrial-scale mines worldwide only four still use it, three of them in Papua New Guinea. Communities downstream call the result the Red River and drink from it because there is no alternative supply; research has found households lack enough clean water for basic needs and are exposed to concerning levels of mine-linked chemicals. The Porgera Red Wara (River) Women's Association was founded around 2014 by Cressida Kuala to give a voice to Indigenous women displaced by the mine, including those who survived rape and gang rape by mine security personnel. It pursues remedy for both harms at once — the water and the violence — on the argument that they came from the same operation.