permaculture

[Lawrence London <lfljvenaura@gmail.com>]

Amazon people turn to water tanks after environmental disaster | Global
development | The Guardian
https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2020/feb/28/amazon-people-turn-to-water-tanks-after-environmental-disaster

Sixty years ago the Kofan had no need to collect rainfall, given the
Amazon’s many rivers, streams, creeks and springs. But then oil companies
arrived. After decades of operations involving billions of gallons of
wastewater being dumped into the environment and millions of barrels of oil
spilled, Ecuador’s north-east Amazon has undergone an environmental
catastrophe.

Mendúa’s husband, Emergildo Criollo, claims his two sons died from the
contamination. “Everything totally changed when the companies arrived,” he
said.

The impacts on the Kofan and other indigenous peoples in the region are
impossible to convey. Swathes of their territories have been colonised,
forest cleared, game and other wildlife decimated and fish, soil and water
sources contaminated. The result has been a decades-long public health
crisis affecting tens of thousands of people, including high cancer rates,
spontaneous miscarriages, childhood leukaemia and birth defects.