Oil waste contaminates the Ecuadorian Amazon

Americas Now

Oil waste contaminates the Ecuadorian Amazon

The Amazonian jungle is supposed to be a pristine territory, a natural sanctuary safeguarded for the benefit of present and future generations by its ancestral inhabitants, the various indigenous tribes that live in complete harmony with nature. However, in vast areas of the Ecuadorian Amazon, the reality could not be more different.

For people like the Cofan, everything changed in 1964, when Texaco first discovered oil underneath the soil of Ecuador’s rainforest. As it has been documented by environmental groups like Amazon Watch, the U.S.–based company, later acquired by Chevron, started to drill for oil with little or no regard for the ecological impact of its activities.

Oil waste contaminates the Ecuadorian Amazon

The Amazonian jungle is supposed to be a pristine territory, a natural sanctuary safeguarded for the benefit of present and future generations by its ancestral inhabitants, the various indigenous tribes that live in complete harmony with nature. However, in vast areas of the Ecuadorian Amazon, the reality could not be more different.

When Texaco left the country, in 1992, it left behind more than 1,000 open-air unlined waste pits filled with crude and toxic sludge, and had dumped more than 18 billion gallons of toxic wastewater –a byproduct of the drilling process of 350 oil wells that the company had carved out of the jungle’s surface.

The indigenous tribes were forced to adapt to worsening environmental conditions such as contaminated water sources, large swaths of rainforest ravaged by oil spills from poorly-kept infrastructure, or deadly residues poured into the jungle.

A decades-long legal battle ensued between the indigenous tribes and the U.S. oil giant, which shows no signs of ending. As lawyers from Canada to Argentina argue, those affected by the ecological disaster continue to suffer. And the government of Ecuador is already conducting more oil and mining operations.

Correspondent Gerry Hadden reports from the South American country.