The Water Development and Management Master Plan (SDAGE) has been the subject of a consultation with the general public since September 18, 2021. In this regard, the representatives in charge of the project in French Guiana went to the river Lawa (Upstream of the Maroni) from 3 to 5 February 2022:
- Patrick Lecante, Mayor of Montsinéry-Tonnégrande and President of the Water and Biodiversity Committee,
- Vincent de Barmon, Head of the Landscape, Water and Biodiversity Department at the General Directorate for Territories and the Sea,
- Franck Chow-Toun, Head of Planning, Forecasting and International Relations at the French Guiana Water Office,
- Célia Biancat, Local coordinator of the BIO-PLATEAUX transboundary cooperation project,
- Amina Mourid, Director of the Association Graine Guyane.
In this context, territorial meetings were organized in:
- Maripa-Soula: meeting on Thursday, February 3 with Mayor Serge Anelli and his municipal council,
- Village de Taluen-Twenké: meeting on Friday, February 4 with one of the traditional chiefs of the village and the representative of Grand Man Aïma Petit,
- Papaïchton: meeting on Friday, February 4 with the technical service in charge of water and sanitation, three traditional chiefs, as well as Mayor Jules Deie and his municipal council.
Several working meetings were also organized with the associations representing these two municipalities.
The very fruitful exchanges highlighted:
- The need for transboundary water management on the Maroni,,
- Increasingly visible pollution on the river caused in part by waste dumped on the Surinamese bank,
- Irreversible degradation of aquatic environments caused by a strong increase of the uncontrolled gold mining on the Surinamese banks (including on an ancestral cemetery of the Aluku people on the Surinamese bank near Papaïchton),
- Emerging problems for navigability on the river due to the development of traffic which is becoming more and more important,
- A need to strengthen water and sanitation services.
All the stakeholders welcomed the initiative of the field trip of the Water and Biodiversity Committee and its delegation. The results of this mission will be integrated into the future SDAGE 2022-2027, third programming cycle.
A consultation form is available on the Internet: https://www.ceb-guyane.fr/questionnaire-de-consultation-du-public