COLOMBIA: Humanitarian Crisis in La Guajira

News from the northern La Guajira region in Colombia is bleak. In the fast few days another child died from malnutrition.

According to indigenous leader Javier Rojas Uriana, this latest tragedy brings the total infant deaths caused by malnutrition in the area up to 35 this year. “I’m tired of reporting and having to go and bury our children,” Rojas said in an interview earlier this week.

Rojas is the leader of the indigenous organisation Wayúu Shipia. A prominent activist, he has taken on the role of spokesperson for the Wayúu indigenous group, who have seen their traditional subsistence farming way of life made impossible by lack of access to water. Indigenous people make up roughly half of the population of La Guajira region, and it is these groups who are bearing the brunt of the crisis.

Families used to grow corn, watermelon and yuca, as well as tending to goats and chickens. But crops and livestock have long perished. There is no water in the wells and small local reservoirs have all but dried up. Bags of seeds hang from the ceilings of homes, waiting for a time when there is enough water to plant them.

It would be easy to blame the crisis on the drought which, now into its third year, is the worst on record.

Exacerbated by the El Niño climatic phenomenon, the lack of rainfall has certainly disproportionately affected the already arid northern peninsula. However, a closer look shows that the drought is only one of the contributing factors to the water crisis.

During the past two decades, the needs of La Guajira’s rural communities have been systematically subordinated to the desires of large scale businesses.

In 2010, a dam and reservoir project was completed across the main river in the area, the Ranchería. One of the professed aims of this project was to supply rural communities with water from the reservoir, and in doing so provide protection from any potential drought. Yet six years later, these plans have not come to fruition.

Only one of the four main aims of the project has been fulfilled; the supply of water for large scale agricultural businesses. And rural communities now have a drastically reduced supply of water from the river at a time when they need it most.

 

La Guajira is also home to Latin America’s largest open-cast coal mine, El Cerrejón. The mine takes its name from a nearby sacred hill and sprawls over some 690 square kilometers, encompassing ancestral Wayúu territories.

While the mine itself consumes 27,000 cubic meters of water every day, it has decimated the water supplies of rural communities. Reports indicate that seismic movements caused by the mine’s dynamite explosions have made cracks appear in local reservoirs in the surrounding areas. As a result, water has drained away, and the little that remains is polluted by the ubiquitous coal dust.

The mining has also dramatically reduced the natural ground water levels. In the past, fresh water could be obtained from wells that were five meters deep, and created using traditional methods. Now, communities are drilling for over forty metres to access poor quality water.

And it’s not just water that is being siphoned off for other purposes. Corruption is rife in this area which is so geographically and psychologically distant from the administrative centre of the country. Money allocated for school meals, healthcare, or sustainable infrastructure projects often goes missing before it reaches those who need it most.

Only last month, ex-governor of La Guajira, Hernando Deluque, was served a nine year jail sentence for, amongst other charges: “the appropriation of public resources.” Deluque’s apparent disregard for the wellbeing of the region’s vulnerable people seems to be echoed on a national level. Government officials and healthcare providers alike appear reluctant to assume responsibility for the crisis.

In the face of this official indifference, the High Court of Riohacha, capital of La Guajira, earlier this month issued an order to President Juan Manuel Santos himself, giving him 48 hours to implement plans to address the humanitarian crisis. Included was the order to: “ensure the availability, accessibility and quality of health services,” and to do so in a culturally appropriate way.

This comes after the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights called upon the government last December to take immediate steps to ensure access to safe drinking water. As of yet, these demands have fallen largely upon deaf ears.

There is no fix-all solution to a crisis which encompasses natural disaster, human rights abuses, corruption, multinational corporations, state indifference and indigenous ways of life. But by continuing to turn a blind eye to the issue, Santos and his government risk sending the message that the lives of some members of the Colombian population are more important than others. It also risks, according to Rojas, the “total extinction” of the Wayúu indigenous group.