Veolia in the crosshairs of NGOs on a landfill in Colombia

The French group Veolia, buyer in Colombia of a landfill accused of polluting the environment, is in the sights of the British NGO Global Witness for which the dysfunctions around this site have not stopped, which the company defends. According to the NGO, which cites the local group San Silvestre Green, named after the wetland where the site is located (north), liquids from the fermentation of waste buried in this landfill opened in 2015 and operated since 2019 by Veolia continue to spread in this fragile ecosystem.

The French group denies: "Onthe environmental plan, there are no releases of leachate by the plant, it is treated in the plant, and this has always been the case," says Veolia, which evokes a household waste treatment center when its local accusers speak of traces of heavy metals detected in 2017. "Monitoring of the quality of this water is done on a regular basis, and we have obtained the strictest international certifications," adds the company, referring to the liquids produced by waste.

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The report is published by Global Witness as the European Union (EU) debates a bill to impose a "duty of vigilance" on European companies on environmental damage and rights violations in their production chain. The subject arrives in the European Parliament on Thursday. This bill "would make it possible to hold companies accountable," says Global Witness, which "calls on Veolia to address all the difficulties faced by the local community". Among the grievances made to the multinational, the demand for drinking water from residents of the Yerbabuena landfill, today still delivered by truck, Veolia evoking for its part a water treatment plant project. Global Witness also calls on the group to "implement a zero-tolerance policy towards attacks on human rights defenders" and environmental defenders in Colombia.