Oil can be found in the water, on rocks, and in the sand at the Coca River’s banks in Ecuador.
Puerto Madero residents did not try to hide their anger at the latest crude oil spillage in the Ecuadorian Amazon.
This damage is not temporary. It will last for two months and then it will take 20 years for things to return to normal. Bolivia Buenano, an area merchant, stated that the spillage occurred approximately 120km (75 mi) away.
Buenano was part of a cleanup crew assembled by OCP, an oil transport company, to help the 700-odd residents.
She exclaimed, while cleaning a polluted containment buoy, that no one can swim in the river or drink from it.
Buenano complained about the lack of investment by the state in the Amazon provinces. These provinces hold a lot of the country’s oil wealth, but are most affected from industrial disasters like this.
The OCP pipeline ruptured in an area protected by the Amazon. This caused the oil spillage [Ecuadors Ministry of Environment via AFP]Friday’s oil spillage into Ecuador’s east environmental reserve was almost 6,300 barrels. It happened when heavy rains caused a boulder on a pipeline to fall.
Cesar Benalcazar was just one of many people who rushed to stop the oil flow.
We tried to stop crude oil from reaching the river but the slope made it descend like water, said Benalcazar (24)
OCP has reported that more than 84% of the crude oil has been recovered.
Not before 21,000 square meters (226,000 sq. feet) of Cayambe Coca nature preserve were polluted. Crude water drained into the Coca River, one of the largest rivers in Ecuadorian Amazon, and an important source of income for many riverbank communities.
The stain can be spread by currents and rains for miles.
We are tired because this life is not normal. Buenano said that nature is not healthy and is contaminated.
This will continue as long the pipeline and crude oil network are operational.
2020: A mudslide caused pipelines to be damaged, spilling approximately 15,000 barrels of crude oil into three rivers in the Amazon basin. This affected several communities.
Ecuador’s most important export product is crude petroleum.
Between January 2021 and November 2021, the country produced 494,000 barrels per hour.
Buenano, along with the rest of the cleanup team, muttered indignly as they filled containers with polluted soil. They then stacked the containers together for removal later.
Residents claim that the spillage has reached the Coca River and has been spread by rain and currents for miles. [Ecuadors Ministry of Environment via AFP]Rosa Capinoa, the leader of Fecunae Indigenous, stated that we are the forgotten of God. She was visiting the affected areas.
This is not something you can fix in an hour, it will take time. She said that the natural disaster is very distressing.
We, as communities, do not share the profit. We get only a water bottle or water tanks. Capinoa was responding to OCP’s request to provide drinking water to the affected population.
According to Ecuador’s environment ministry Friday’s spillage took place within the Cayambe Coca Reserve, which covers some 403,000 hectares (9966,000 acres), and is home to a wide range of animals.
It spread from there to the Coca River.
We feel very outraged as we experience this every two to three years,” said Romel Buenano a 35 year-old farmer from Puerto Madero. He is not related or related to Bolivia Buenano.
He stated that the 2020 disaster put an end for fishing for a while and killed animals on the Coca islets.
He told AFP that the cleaning does not mean that the pollution is gone.
