The community that dies from thirst

A three year old child died of malnutrition last Friday in Uribia, a town of Colombia located in the department of La Guajira, mostly inhabited by the indigenous population Wayuu. The lack of water in recent years has taken the lives of nearly 5,000 children, according to Javier Rojas, leader of the Association of Traditional Indigenous Authorities Shipia Wayuu Wayuu. The more than 400,000 people who make up this community live 365 days a year with temperatures between 35 and 42 degrees, without water. Since a mining company was installed more than 10 years in the region, there has been a decline in the possibilities to access the liquid. The deaths make clear the drama that is lived.

The case has already reached the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), which called on Wednesday the Colombian Government to explain what measures it has taken to address this community and follow up to any attempts they have made to solve the food crisis that also affects those indigenous peoples. At the end of the process, according to Carolina Sáchica, the lawyer handling the case on behalf of the Wayuu, they expect to recover the water from the largest water resource in the area, the Rancheria River, which was dammed for the exclusive use of companies expected engaged in coal mining.

International Campaign to stop the diversion of the Bruno Stream

The Cerrejón coal mine in Colombia has already forcibly relocated thousands of people from local communities. Now the mine wants to divert one of the area's few rivers to access more coal - but it is one of the main sources of water for people in the area.
Local communities have joined forces with workers in the mine to stop the river diversion and protect the livelihood of people living in the area. Community opposition recently stopped the company from diverting the arid region's major river to get at 500 million tonnes of extra coal.

Cerrejón is owned by three massive mining multinationals listed on the London Stock Exchange: Anglo American, BHP Billiton and Glencore. Please tell them to respect community rights in Colombia and halt the diversion of the Arroyo Bruno river.

This is a joint action by a coalition of organisations working in solidarity with communities around Cerrejón.

Click here to sign and show your support

Diverting the Arroyo Bruno: A Stupid Idea

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.

Diversion of the Bruno Stream in La Guajira. An environmental absurdity

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.

MEETING ON MINING AND ENERGY ON THE COLOMBIAN CARIBBEAN TOWARD A NEW NATIONAL MINING POLICY

MEETING ON MINING AND ENERGY ON THE COLOMBIAN CARIBBEAN

TOWARD A NEW NATIONAL MINING POLICY AND THE COMPENSATION FOR THE SOCIO-ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS FROM MINING TO THE GUAJIRO PEOPLE

Riohacha, University of La Guajira, 9 and May 10, 2013

1.       Justification

Open pit mining has been practiced in Colombia as a result of its inclusion into the neoliberal international division of labor. This involves the use of financial capital from large multinational companies that have brought deep economic, social, cultural and environmental impacts, while undermining our national sovereignty.

Indigenous peoples' struggle for water

You would think that water is one of the most basic rights. However, privatization of water, together with the intensification of its use, have become important issues negatively affecting indigenous communities all over the world who now struggle to find this precious and basic liquid.
Read a quick article:
http://www.culturalsurvival.org/publications/cultural-survival-quarterly/none/indigenous-peoples-and-water-rights
and
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/international-archives-60/233-water-law-and-indigenous-rights-in-the-andes

The Civic Committee of La Guajira for the Defense of the Rancheria River and the Canaverales Spring Press Release

The Civic Committee of La Guajira for the Defense of the Rancheria River and the Canaverales Spring

Press Release

Riohacha, November 9, 2012.

LA GUAJIRA STOPS THE MINING LOCOMOTIVE

The Civic Committee of La Guajira for the Defense of the Rancheria River and the Canaverales Spring claimed as a victory the announcement of Roberto Junguito, president of Cerrejón, to withdraw in its attempt to divert the River Rancheria. This is achievement has come as a result of the unity of peasants – and Colombians in general – and the strong social mobilization.

The Rancheria River has been saved...for now.

Read about one of the versions of why El Cerrejon has decided to "postpone" the Rancheria River.

Cerrejón postpones studies on the possible diversion of the Rancheria River 

 

Photo: Diana Sanchez

Article by: El Espectador Newspaper

The complex of mining in La Guajira (Cerrejon) said Thursday that the study that looked for diverting the Rancheria river, was postponed.

As reported by Cerrejón, the postponement of the study was due to "the conditions of the international coal price. The trend of the past two years has been downward, registering a fall in the price of coal of 35 percent. "

Rivers all over the world threatened

The Rancheria River is not the only river that local communities are trying to defend. Read about the case of Santa Cruz Barillas, Guatemala
Link:
http://www.culturalsurvival.org/publications/cultural-survival-quarterly/defending-life-first-struggle-protect-river-and-human

Cerrejon: Labor and Health Conditions

Cerrejon: Coal for the World Powers = Misery for Colombia

Communique to the municipal, departmental, and national public opinion

COMMUNIQUÉ TO THE MUNICIPAL, DEPARTMENTAL, AND NATIONAL PUBLIC OPINION

We, The political organizations signing below, after meeting in the headquarters of Sintracarbon located in the city of Riohacha, La Guajira, on July 19 2012, wish to express to the local, departmental, and national public opinion our position and arguments regarding the mining projects in La Guajira, the change of the course of the Ranchería River, the modification of the Cañaverales Spring, and the new royalties’ regime:

Letter from a Wayuu woman to the Colombian President Santos

Pancho, April 4th, 2012

JUAN MANUEL SANTOS

President of the Republic of Colombia

Bogota

Greetings:

I am writing to you from Pancho, a Wayuu village made of mud houses with zinc roofs, that exists on the right hand side of the banks of the Ranchería river, the only river in the Mid to High Guajira.

Tens of settlements exist in Pancho because we, the Wayuu people live throughout this dessert God gave us.