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The oil spill and the triple pandemic that plagues the Ecuadorian Amazon

2021-04-08T03:52:45.618Z


The author recalls that the spill on the Napo and Coca rivers in the northeast of the Ecuadorian Amazon, more than a year ago, caused a humanitarian and ecological disaster that the authorities are reluctant to repair. The affected indigenous communities demand a response. Fifth and last installment of the documentary series 'Destellos del Amazonas'


The night of April 7 was darker than others in the northern Ecuadorian Amazon.

Suddenly, the Napo and Coca rivers were shadowed with oil and fuel.

Three pipes broke, producing the worst socio-environmental disaster in the last 15 years, spilling more than 15,000 gallons (almost 57,000 liters) and indirectly affecting more than 120,000 people and directly 35,000, of which 27,000 are indigenous Kichwas from around of 105 communities from 22 parishes in two provinces.

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“Comrade, we see that oil goes down the riverbed, help us to report what is happening.

The young people went fishing at dawn and when they return they find their whole body full of oil, we need urgent help ”.

This was one of the first testimonies from Olger Gallo, president of the Kichwa community of Panduyaku, in the province of Sucumbíos, the first person I made contact with after the spill occurred.

In fact, not even the Ecuadorian State itself recognized the incident and it took several hours to make what was happening official.

But we already, through the community media, knew in detail what happened from the testimonies that the community members were giving, which facilitated the dissemination of the event and its rapid positioning at the level of the national media, through our digital platforms.

A preventable disaster

Months ago, different human rights organizations had warned the Ecuadorian State about the threat in the area due to a sinkhole produced in the San Rafael waterfall, the upper basin of the Coca River, an episode that did not receive due attention from the Government.

Thus, the spill was produced by the omissions of the SOTE and OCP pipeline operators, who did not comply with the precautionary principle in the face of the accelerated regressive erosion produced from the collapse of the waterfall, which occurred on February 2, 2020.

The process of regressive erosion had been noticed by experts, on multiple occasions, during the construction of the Coca Codo Sinclair hydroelectric dam.

“We have always been telling the Ecuadorian State that it could bring us these problems, but the Government never listens to us and now here are the consequences, now that the President tells us who is going to answer for what happened, even more so when we are experiencing this pandemic ”Olger Gallo himself warned, who saw with frustration how this new disaster was occurring and affecting his own community.

The indigenous communities were not alerted to the spill and they went fishing and made use of the river water and now face the impacts such as skin conditions and stomach problems

The spill affected more than 2,000 indigenous families from the Coca and Napo rivers, contaminating their source of subsistence and their cultural and spiritual life.

Indigenous communities were not alerted to the spill.

They went fishing and made use of the river water and now face the impacts, skin conditions, stomach problems, girls and boys from 60 communities have skin problems.

“Oil stains are for life.

We demand that the State repair the damages caused by its lack of attention.

Now, those who pay for the broken dishes are the commoners.

No more impunity or injustice! ”Said Carlos Jipa, community leader and president of the Federation of United Communes of the Ecuadorian Amazon FCUNAE.

He was the one who, before the event of April 7, contacted me to request that the widest possible dissemination of this disaster be given, as well as support in legal and organizational terms.

His organization had decided to file a lawsuit for protection action against the Ecuadorian State to demand due environmental remediation, as well as the repair of collective and nature rights violated by what has ended up being the second largest spill in history in Ecuador.

In the commune of Sani Isla in the province of Orellana, Damary Mayerli Grefa shows the problems she has on her skin due to contact with water contaminated with crude oil due to the spill last April. Ivan Castaneira / Agencia Tegantai

The Kichwa communes of Orellana sue the State

Thus, on April 29, 2020, we decided to present, together with a variety of plaintiffs and the Kichwa communes of Orellana, a demand for protection action against the effects suffered by the communities.

It included a specific request for precautionary measures to stop the damage that had already occurred in relation to rights such as water, food, physical and emotional health, integrity, a dignified life, a healthy environment and the rights of the human person. nature, among others.

“We are here to demand justice, because we are already tired of our rights being violated every time there are spills that affect our communes.

But the State has never assumed its responsibility, and that is why today we have come to present this demand to the Government so that once and for all it assumes the consequences of its lack of action and attention to the requests of the communities ”.

These were the words of the legal claim based on the account provided by Carlos Jipa, accompanied by a series of testimonies from dozens of community members who, given the seriousness of the spill, decided to break the silence and raise their voices.

“We have come to demand our rights, enough of so much impunity, gentlemen of PetroEcuador and OCP.

Gentlemen of the government, hear the cry of our communities.

As president of the Toyuca community, I tell you clearly that at no time has there been any environmental repair for the damage caused by the spill, much less timely attention to our families, women and children.

We are in total neglect and you come here to want to manipulate us with a can of sardines, with a cover of noodles, when we have lived for millennia with the source of food that the river gives us.

But now, we cannot even harvest cassava and banana from our fields, because even the soil is contaminated with oil, ”says Verónica Grefa, a young community leader from the Kichwa community of Toyuca, one of those affected by the disaster.

There, during the development of the hearings and the legal process initiated by the communities, the State and the companies tried to generate division among the population to clean up their image.

A triple pandemic

All these effects occurred in the context of the Covid-19 crisis.

In reality, we are talking about a triple pandemic derived from the health emergency, extractivism and its consequences, and the historical marginalization of the Amazon region by the governments of the day.

"Imagine, mate.

We are in full emergency due to the new coronavirus, confined to our community, as the Government said: 'Stay at home'.

But now, with the spill, what are we going to feed on if our orchards were also contaminated, if we can't go fishing.

So, we have had to look for food in the nearby towns, risking contagion, "Olger told me on the morning of April 7, after the disaster.

The judges have in their hands the opportunity to act with justice and return their livelihoods to the victims, demanding full reparation from the State and the companies responsible.

This shows the neglect to which hundreds of families have been exposed during the most critical phase of the pandemic, between the months of April and October, but also reveals a historical symptom of marginalization that is accentuated mainly in the Amazon jungle, paradoxically the corner from Ecuador from where the wealth that sustains the country's economy is extracted, with a process of oil exploitation of more than 40 years in the northeastern Amazon that still leaves these types of consequences, such as the one presented with the second largest spill in history in the tropical jungles of Ecuador.

The communities have been without water or safe food for many months, with their health affected by contamination, the pandemic, the dengue outbreak and the insufficient actions of those responsible: the State and companies OCP and Petroecuador.

The communities affected by the April 7 spill are at imminent risk of new catastrophes that are also foreseeable, since the process of regressive erosion has accelerated and has already produced new landslides.

And they do not have a sustained care plan, nor an early warning plan.

Mobilization

Despite all this injustice, the communities will not stop in their search for truth and justice;

and, although on September 1 the Ecuadorian justice rejected the request for protection action as “inadmissible”, on October 15 the Kichwa communes presented an appeal against the unjust and absurd sentence of the Judicial Council of the province of Orellana .

They accompanied the appeal with the delivery of 15,000 signatures in support of the process as

amicus curiae

(presentations made by third parties unrelated to a litigation, who voluntarily offer their opinion), including Ecuadorians and people from all over the world.

This was carried out together with dozens of mobilizations led by the communes so that their voice is heard, not only in Orellana, but in the country and throughout the world.

And they are succeeding.

Presentation of 15,000 signatures in support of the victims of the spill to request reparation from the judges of the Provincial Court of Justice of Orellana, Ecuador.

December 20, 2020. Iván Castanieda / Agencia Tegantai

“It is urgent to press for a fair and transparent hearing where the voice of the injured is heard, justice must face the 27,000 affected Kichwa.

The world is awaiting the cause of # SOSDerrameAmazonía.

National and international celebrities, such as Leonardo Di Caprio called the attention of the State and the judges so that justice is done and a hearing is called to listen to the victims ”, affirm Carlos and Verónica, along with indigenous leaders and defense lawyers. human rights.

Eleven months have passed, but 120,000 people, including 27,000 indigenous people, continue to face the pandemic without water or safe food.

The rivers, their crops and even their own bodies were horribly affected.

Many of us join the struggle of the Amazonian Kichwas for justice, comprehensive reparation and remediation, and we ask the new Tribunal to break the historical cycle of impunity.

The judges have in their hands the opportunity to act with justice and return their livelihoods to the victims, demanding full reparation from the State and the companies responsible.

The violation of the rights of communities and nature by unscrupulous oil companies cannot remain unpunished.

Andrés Tapia

is the communication leader of

Confeniae - Lanceros Digitales

.

This story is part of the series 'Destellos del Amazonas', produced in the Amazon by

DemocracyAbierta

.

In Ecuador, the

CONFENIAE

team participated

together with indigenous journalists from Lanceros Digitales.

The series is supported by the

Pulitzer Center's

Rainforest Jounalism Fund

.

We appreciate the testimonies and graphic material provided by members of the communities portrayed in this story, who remain isolated due to covid-19.

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Source: elparis

All news articles on 2021-04-08

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