Across
the globe, governments, international organizations, social organizations,
political parties, and civil society all worry about the impeding water crisis,
which is no longer a far-off nightmare, but a real apocalyptic threat.
The Obama administration proclaimed several
years ago, “water is not only a health issue, not only an economic development
issue, no only an environmental question, but also a security problem.”
María Otero, the Under Secretary of State for Civilian Security, Democracy, and Human Rights,
emphasized that water, “would be the priority within the various issues on the
agenda for foreign policy and national security from now on.”
The navigational map for this perverse
hegemonic imperialist project is Intelligence Community Assessment on Global
Water Security from 2012.
The director of the Intergovernmental Panel on
Climate Change (IPCC), Rajendra Pachauri, warned, “Unfortunately, the world has
not woken up to the fact that we are going to face a real crisis when it comes
to water.”
Muntar Kente, the chairman and CEO of
Coca-Cola, speaking in an international forum on water in Mexico City several
years ago declared, “At Coca-Cola, we use 300 billion liters of water per year
in over 1000 plants worldwide, and that is equivalent to six months water
supply for Mexico City.”
Colombia faces dramatic environmental
degradation; especially clear in the La Guajira department where the Cerrejón
coalmine has a massive impact and influence.
This year, this colossal mine plans to expand
its mining concession through project P40 which would increase production from
32 to 40 million tons of coal annually and would require $1.3 billion USD in
international investment.
The mine claims it will benefit the region by
creating 5000 new jobs for the duration of the project. Yet is has lied about the fact that in order
to expand its concession it will divert the Arroyo Bruno, a tributary of the
Rancheria River, located in the Albania municipality where social protest has
sprung up to stop this terrible plan as part of the global need to protect
every drop of water on this planet.
A study released by the organizations defending
the Arroyo Bruno demonstrates that the 45, 000 people living in the Hatonuevo
and Albanía municipalities consume 7.5 million liters of water per day, while
Cerrejón uses 17 million liters just to water down the dirt roads surrounding
the mine.
The 2014 drought in La Guajira should have been
a wake up call about the growing humanitarian crisis of access to water.
The Juan Manuel Santos administration cannot
leave La Guajira at the mercy of the Cerrejón multinational corporation on this
question of water scarcity. The
Departmental Assembly, city councils, Corpoguajira, and Municipal Governments
should prioritize education on climate change in La Guajira through educational
institutions from primary school to universities.
This fight against the diversion of the Arroyo
Bruno is not a block to regional development or generating more employment, but
rather points out the moral responsibility of all of us to preserve La Guajira
for future generations.
Periódico LA GUAJIRA,
TRANSLATED BY RIO RANCHERIA
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