New ecological emergency in the Amazon jungle: since Friday, oil has been spilling from a damaged pipeline in the Ecuadorian Amazon, and has affected a protected natural area and a river that supplies water to several villages in this region of the northeast of Ecuador.
"The affected area is located in the Cayambe-Coca National Park and, according to the zoning, the oil spill took place in the protection zone," the environment ministry said in a statement on Tuesday.
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A large oil leak in the Amazon raises fears of a major ecological disaster
About 21,000 m2 of the Cayambe-Coca reserve were affected by the oil leak.
The crude also flowed into the Coca, a major river in the Amazon that flows into a river, the Napo, the ministry added.
This river and river provide water to many communities, including indigenous peoples.
Water and food delivered to residents
On Wednesday, the private company OCP (Oleoducto de Crudos Pesados), which manages the pipeline, estimated that more than a million liters had spilled into the reserve.
Or 6,300 barrels.
OCP "collected and reinjected 5,300 barrels of crude oil into the system", or 84% of the crude oil spilled, the organization said.
Emergency committees have been activated in the provinces of Napo and Orellana in order to "guarantee safe water for the consumption of the population".
"We demand to know how many barrels have been dumped and what the process will be for delivering water and food to the communities," the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of the Ecuadorian Amazon (Confeniae), the country's main indigenous organization, said on Twitter. country.
"It is clear that the river's water cannot be used or consumed", lamented this organization, while no independent assessment of the damage has been carried out for the moment.
On Tuesday, the OCP said it had "started providing clean water" to several communities in the affected area, such as Toyuca, Sardinas and Guayusa, and promised food aid and medical care.
“We are working on the remediation of the affected soil and vegetation, as well as small traces detected in the watercourse,” company president Jorge Vugdelija said in videos addressed to the press.
Plenty of water
Covering an area of more than 4,000 km2, Cayambe-Coca National Park straddles four provinces, in an area of mountains and rainforests in the Amazon basin, between 600 and 5,790 m above sea level. altitude.
It takes its name from Cayambe, a volcano, and the Coca River which crosses its territory.
About a hundred species of mammals are listed there (tapirs, cougars, bears, condors, etc.) and nearly 400 species of birds.
Located about a hundred kilometers northeast of the capital Quito, this park is characterized by the omnipresence of water: falls, cascades, springs, lagoons, moors impregnated with humidity and shrouded in fog... all under incessant rains.
Heavy rains caused landslides and rockfalls at the end of the week, leading to the rupture of a crude oil transport pipeline in the Piedra Fina area.
“A case of force majeure”
The incident took place on Friday at the border between the provinces of Napo and Sucumbios, on a 485 km long pipeline that crosses a total of four provinces.
According to the government, the landslide affected "four infrastructure pipes", which transport 160,000 barrels of crude a day from oil wells in the middle of the jungle.
The OCP "assumes responsibility for this event, caused by a case of force majeure", assured Sunday its executive president, Jorge Vugdelija.
Using bulldozers, the company began repairing the pipeline, collecting the crude oil “in retention basins to then transfer it to the Lago Agrio station (capital of Sucumbios) by tanker trucks”.
Ecuador has significant oil resources, its main export product.
Between January and November 2021, the country produced an average of 494,000 barrels/day.
Between 1960 and 1990, Texaco, a subsidiary of Chevron, had exploited these oil reserves in the Amazonian forest and had been accused of having destroyed part of the forest and deliberately dumped millions of tons of toxic waste in the middle of the jungle or in the rivers. , on several hundred sites.