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The young people are going out in San Agustín de Puñacas, a municipality in the province of Poopó in the Bolivian Altiplano, where Aymara, Quechua and Urus live together. Most of the inhabitants of this ayllu, as the social organization is called in some parts of the Andes, are elderly people. The remainder of the population was displaced from contamination by hundreds of mining operations, which for decades released tin and zinc mixed with “copajira” (spent water containing chemical residues) into rivers and lakes through improvised pipes, without authorities having effective control. .
“This place is a victim zone where our waters and our land are polluted,” said Abel Machaca, 60, a leader from San Agustín de Puñacas, Oruro department. There alone, around 40 families were left without water to drink and land to plant. “I have eight children and they all went to Buenos Aires (Argentina) for this; Because you can no longer raise animals, there is no work,” says Gabriela Cruz, a 61-year-old farmer. “All the young people have emigrated because Lake Poopó has also dried up. So what do you eat? “The houses of those who left are deserted,” he laments.
Gabriela Cruz speaks at a community meeting about the problems they face because of water pollution. Manuel Seoane
In 2021, the municipality decided to file a lawsuit against the local, national and mining authorities in the Oruro District Court, but the lawsuit was dismissed. The parishioners did not give up and passed before the Constitutional Court, the highest Bolivian judicial body, with legal help from the NGO Cenda (Centro de Comunicación y Desarrollo Andino).
In the ruling announced in March, the court ordered a “study of the water that feeds this indigenous group to verify whether or not it is fit for human consumption and agricultural use and to assess its impact on to measure the water supply.” health of its population.
If the study confirms the contamination of the water, national and local authorities “must take the appropriate measures to restore use of the optimal water resource for their use,” the ruling added. “We want clean water to live on and land to plant and for our animals to eat and drink without getting contaminated,” said Benita Lima, another 71-year-old farmer who said she suffered from kidney pain from the spills returns.
The bed of the Huanuni River before its confluence with Lake Poopó, with an artisanal mining site on the left. Manuel Seoane
Ecosystem and health impacts
Cenda’s environmental engineer, Yasir Peredo, gazes sadly at one of the sinkholes that pour acidic water into the entire area. “There are permanent mining impacts that cannot be restored to the ecosystem,” he says. “We are convinced that the population is exposed to heavy metals and is currently suffering from ill health, advanced cancer and kidney damage,” says Sergio Vásquez, lawyer and managing director of Cenda, who represents the communities legally.
Sergio Vásquez explains to the members of Ayllu San Agustín the results of the popular lawsuit against the contamination of mining companies. Manuel Seoane
Richard Chiara, Head of Medical Studies at Oruro Technical University (UTO), conducted a study in 2019 on blood lead levels and its effect on the IQ of 10 students at a school in the contaminated area. The study found that young people “had up to eight times the blood lead level recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO), up to 10 micrograms per deciliter of blood” and that “there is a lower intelligence quotient.” higher lead concentration in the blood.
“Lead is one of the few minerals that cannot be excreted in the urine and remains in the body permanently. In low concentrations it acts on the nervous system and in high concentrations it can cause seizures, dizziness and, in very extreme cases, even death,” Chiara added. The WHO considers lead as one of the ten chemicals of most concern to public health, which requires the intervention of countries’ governments to protect people’s health.
A puddle of waste from the Huanuni mining company on the bed of the river of the same name. Manuel Seoane
Acidified water in Poopó. Manuel Seoane
Chemicals at the bottom of the Huanuni River. Manuel Seoane
Contaminated mud in the Poopó river bed. Manuel Seoane
“We want to work”
Villa Poopó is the largest municipality in the region and is home to about 5,000 people who have drinking water thanks to a dam that serves only this town. At the same time, other rivers cross the city and flow into the Ayllu San Agustín, whose polluted water is orange in color and smells of metal.
Benita Lima says she has two options for getting drinking water: she can take a taxi, which costs up to $10 to transport 30-liter barrels, or take the barrels from the Ayllu to the Ayllu in an hour and a half Run Villa Poopó.
Benita Lima tells the press on May 15 about the health problems her doctor attributes to contamination in the mining industry. Manuel Seoane
In order to meet his needs, a person needs between 50 and 100 liters of water every day. Most of the city’s population is devoted to mining. They are aware of the contamination but defend their work and reject community protests. “Of course I’m afraid of contagion, but what should we do, life is like that and for the family we have to face the fear. We suffer from stomach pains and dizziness because we work up to 12 hours,” says Víctor Rafael, a 55-year-old miner who works in an improvised mine, where he extracts tin concentrate from the little contaminated water that remains in the Poopó River .
The biggest problem in the region is contamination from Huanuni, a state mining center that is home to around 30,000 people and where tin is mined. It is about 54 kilometers east of the Aylu. Toxic waste from the mine is dumped through plastic pipes straight into the Huanuni River, a foul-smelling gray body of water. “We know there are mining resources in the river and we do this because of unemployment. We want people to benefit from a job!” says Bruno Ramírez, 40, leader of a group for the unemployed in Huanuni.
Edwin Poma extracts tin concentrate from the same site as Víctor Rafael in Poopó. Manuel Seoane
Its polluted waters stretch for tens of kilometers and empties into the Desaguadero River, shared by Bolivia and Peru. Both tributaries flow into Lake Poopó, whose name made headlines around the world after it dried up completely in 2015. A few puddles of water have reappeared in the lake over the years, but most of it is now land. white or yellow.
Residents of Ayllu San Agustín used to fish in the lake, but due to climate change and pollution, the fish have disappeared along with the more than 200 species of mammals and birds that live there, including the Parina, an Andean flamingo.
In 2009, the government of then-President Evo Morales declared a state of emergency in the region “due to the looming impact on human health and food security caused by the ongoing contamination and salinization of the soil” and ordered corrective measures to be taken by the residents of the Ayllu not enough.
The facilities of the Huanuni mining company in the department of Oruro on May 15, 2023. Manuel Seoane
A waste water discharge point of the mining company Poopó directly into the river course. Manuel Seoane
During his 13 years in government, Morales maintained close ties with state mining cooperatives, granting them privileges such as laws to operate in protected areas and tax benefits. This relationship continues with the current President Luis Arce. “We are evaluating and coordinating the best actions to strengthen the mining sector for the benefit of Bolivian men and women,” Arce said in March after meeting with Huanuni miners. This month, mining, one of the mainstays of the Bolivian economy, increased its production by 9.28% compared to the same month in 2022, while last year it was one of the largest exports, worth $6.2 billion .
“As long as the miners are partners with the government, they will never give us water,” laments Gabriela Cruz. For now, the Ayllu communities have formed a commission to oversee the conduct of the study ordered by the Constitutional Court, and they are not ruling out filing a complaint with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR).
The Desaguadero River, polluted by mining activities, the main tributary of the practically extinct Lake Poopó. Manuel Seoane