The Mining Disaster in the Sonora River: Scopes of social studies and health studies
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Dr. Rolando E. Díaz Caravantes will present on what is considered the worst environmental disaster in Mexico’s mining industry. On August 6, 2014, a mine owned by Grupo México spilled 40,000 cubic meters of acidulated copper sulfate into the Sonora River. Based on nearly a decade of social research, this work examines the disaster's environmental, social, and health impacts. It also highlights a second, institutional disaster—the government’s failure to adequately address the crisis and deliver justice to affected communities. Meanwhile, the mining company continues exploiting natural resources, hoarding water, and constructing a new tailings dam at the Sonora River basin’s source.
Rolando E. Díaz Caravantes is a professor at El Colegio de Sonora at the Center for Studies in Health and Society. He earned his doctorate from the School of Geography and Development at the University of Arizona and has a master's degree in social sciences from El Colegio de Sonora. He has studied human-environment-water interaction focusing on how the livelihoods of smallholder farmers have been negatively affected by environmental conditions.