Once again, it appears that coal mining became an
environmental, economic and social scam for a region that expected welfare and
progress coming from the exploitation of large mineral reserves, stored for
millions of years. The mining-energy locomotive that pulls out the important
minerals of the zone is also carrying the hopes of a people who looked for
mining extraction a boost for development that would bring decent work, growth
and modernity and social transformation.
The results of more than 3 decades of exploitation show
another thing: Coal production is equivalent to 61% of regional GDP, but which
employs only 3% of the economically active population; a notorious
environmental degradation, destruction of tropical dry forest, contamination of
surface and groundwater, disappearance of many tributary streams of the River
Rancheria, and population displacement as people are forced to leave their
ancestral villages to give place to mining. Poverty, drought, violence, poor
health and insecurity are notorious in a territory that is generously endowed
by nature.
La Guajira is beset by voracious transnational corporations whose
interests are privileged against the rights of peasants who, helpless, notice
how the state acts to favor outsiders.
The abuses seem endless. Cerrejón strives to exacerbate the
drought in a region where water has always been scarce. The aim now is to
divert 3.6 kilometers of once more an important tributary of the Rancheria
River, the Bruno stream, which supplies groundwater for the Wayuu indigenous
communities of the upper and middle Guajira. This stream rises in the mountains
of Oca, its length is of 20 kilometers and its drainage area of 70km2. It is
argued that this stream is not a permanent body of water. Nevertheless, the
IDEAM certifies that the stream had constant rate over the last years.
Corpoguajira studies that do not seem very advanced for the lack of specialized
staff, say the stream glides through areas that store water (aquifers) and
areas that do not (acuífuges). This undermines the arguments of Cerrejón that aims
to downplay the Bruno stream. It is further said that the company is aiming to
expand other pits (Oreganal, Tabaco, y Puente), which would involve the
diversion of other streams.
Faced with such stubborn facts and the lack of respect for
the civil rights of people it comes as necessary to find unity in action to
defend the resources that belong to Colombians in general, and the Guajiros in
particular. Good work are doing the civic and social organizations that promote
debate and ensure a solid organization to assume the defense of the Guajiro
people. That is the way. Go ahead!
By Imelda Daza Cotes, from Newspaper El Pilon
translated by Rancheria River
Original in Spanish, click here
No comments:
Post a Comment