Ecuador: lawmakers fail to reach water bill deal

Ecuadorean lawmakers on Thursday [12 May 2010] failed to reach a deal on suspending debate of a contested water bill that has sparked protests by indigenous groups who fear it threatens their rights to natural resources.

President Rafael Correa says the bill will better regulate the water system. But the failure by lawmakers to agree over the bill opens the way for more indigenous protests over an issue that is a political headache for his leftist government.

Lawmakers were ruling on a motion by Congress President Fernando Cordero to postpone debate over the bill for six months while indigenous communities were consulted over the impact of the proposal on their territories.

Opposition and some pro-government lawmakers blocked an attempt to reach a deal on postponement.

“The water law will be voted on the day we can have the consultations,” Cordero said after the vote though no date was set to resume debate on the proposal.

While Ecuador’s indigenous groups were instrumental in toppling previous governments, analysts say Correa has a solid grip on power and indigenous leaders are more splintered than in past protests when thousands descended on Quito.

Indigenous leaders say the water bill will pave the way for privatizations of natural resources and impact their farming and small-scale mining industries. Correa dismisses the protesters as “liars.”

“The government is irresponsible and is playing with the Ecuadorean people,” said Marlon Santi, head of the Indigenous Confederation of Ecuador or CONAIE. “The protests will continue for now.”

Earlier this month police used tear gas to break up protests outside the Congress building and some demonstrators broke into the building but were ejected by security forces.

Correa, a U.S.-trained former finance minister, came to power in 2007 with broad indigenous support after promising to challenge the political old guard many Ecuadoreans blamed for years of instability in the world’s largest banana exporter.

Correa still has more political capital than predecessors after introducing measures such as increased welfare spending for the poor and striking out at foreign investors. But he has seen his popularity wane as the OPEC nation’s economy flagged during the global economic crisis.

Source: Santiago Silva, Reuters, 13 May 2010

Chile: Supreme Court recognizes ancestral water rights

For the first time since the government of Chile recognized the International Labor Organization’s Convention 169 on the rights of indigenous landowners, a high court has invoked it. After 14 years of litigation, a group of Aymara Indians in Chusmiza-Usmagama, Tarapaca Region, won their battle to bar a water-bottling firm from using their groundwater. A lawsuit was brought against Agua Mineral Chusmiza by native attorneys, Chile’s Directorate General of Waters, and the National Indigenous Development Board (CONADI) in the 1990s, but got nowhere under Chile’s 1981 Water Code, a relic of the Pinochet dictatorship. Luis Carvajal, head of the Aymara community, called the High Court’s ruling “an enormous precedent for other communities,” while Nancy Yanez, a lawyer for the Observatorio Ciudadano and an expert on indigenous water rights, hailed it as “a great triumph.”
[Summary by Louise Shaler, SAHRA News Watch]

Source: Antonio Valencia, La Nacion [in Spanish], 27 Nov 2009

Colombia, La Guajira: indigenous communities to benefit from departmental water plan

Indigenous communities in the Alta Guajira region, who currently depend on water tanks, will get improved access to potable water as part of La Guajira department,s water plan.

La Guajira department has signed the contract with the consortium that will implement water plan.

The project includes the construction of 11 reservoirs and a water treatment plant, which will provide potable water to more than 7mn inhabitants living in the Alta Guajira region, according to deputy water minister Leyla Rojas.

“These works cost approximately 11bn pesos (US$5.54mn),” Rojas said.

The consortium that will manage the departmental water plan, Agua para La Guajira, is comprised of local firms such as capital Bogotá’s Empresa de Acueducto y Alcantarillado (EAAB); B y P Servicios; Selfinver Banca de Inversión; Compañía de Servicios de Ingeniería y Laboratorios Ambientales ILAM and Aguas de Bogotá.

Source: BNamericas.com [subscription site], 10 Nov 2009

Ecuador: one dead and dozens injured in water protests

One protester has been killed and many more are injured following clashes between indigenous tribal people and Ecuadorian police over proposed water and land rights laws.

The demonstrations near to Macas in Ecuador saw the indigenous protesters blockade a bridge linking two key provinces.

Actions around the country began on 27 September 2009 over indigenous fears the government’s new water laws would privatise water sources, give priority access to water to [the mining] industry and slash regulations for water contamination.

According to the protesters local police, backed by a helicopter, opened fire on demonstrators armed only with ‘ceremonial’ spears.

The attack has left at least one confirmed dead, Bosco Wisum, a teacher and member of the Shuar nation, and some 49 civilians and police injured.

President of the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of the Ecuadorian Amazon [CONFENIAE], Tito Puenchir, called the attack the start of a ‘civil war’ and called on the United Nations to intervene.

President Rafael Correa appealed for calm on national radio calling for ‘dialogue’ with the protesters. ["The problem is not the water law, or the mining, or the autonomy of the region," he said. "I fear that, deeper, there are motives of destabilization", Correa said]

On Monday 5 October, Correa and indigenous leaders met and were able to hammer out an agreement to address their concerns. The meeting produced a six-point agreement, which the President is expected to sign on 13 Ocrober 2009.

Firstly, the parties have agreed to institutionalise a permanent dialogue between the government and the native communities.

There will also be a commission set up to work on the Water bill and try to reach an intermediate agreement between the government’s plans and the indigenous groups.

A thorough analysis of possible modifications to the mining law, will be conducted and, finally, a commission, comprising two delegates each from the government the indigenous groups, will investigate the death last week of protester Bosco Wisum.

Indigenous groups had a leading role in overthrowing two previous Ecuadorian presidents.

A BBC article comments that, even though they are not as powerful as they used to be, native communities have grown stronger from this conflict.

Source: Luke Walsh, ediie, 02 Oct 2009 ; Francisca Pouiller, Mining Weekly, 08 Oct 2009

Colombia: communities inaugurate potable water systems

Colombian Magdalena department’s governor Omar Díazgranados inaugurated a new potable water system on 15 September 2009. Construction required a 230mn-peso (US$115,577) investment and the system includes a potable water treatment plant with the capacity to produce 5l/s. The project is the first in Colombia to serve an indigenous community and will benefit some 1,200 inhabitants.

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Cauca department’s governor Guillermo Alberto González inaugurated the revamped Piendamó-Morales potable water system. Construction required a 298mn-peso investment and the project consisted of replacing 2.5km of cement water pipes with PVC ones in Morales municipality. The system is the first project to be carried out under the department’s water master plan and will benefit 2,900 families.

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The inhabitants of Córdoba department’s Las Cazuelas community have finished the construction of a water intake system. The community, located in Cuero Curtido district, built the potable water system and its respective water pumping system to extract water from the local reservoir. The project was financed by the community itself, and was supported by Cuero Curtido mayor Jaime Araujo. The initiative will also reduce pollution in the reservoir, which was being caused by horses and donkeys being led into the water to fill up buckets with water.

Source: BNamericas.com [subscription site], 16 Sep 2009