Farm workers march against hydroelectric project.
Moises Sanchez is a farmer in the Huila Department in Southern Colombia. On January 13, 2013, the Esmad (anti-riot police) dragged him out of his house, and broke it down before his eyes. “They told me they did for my safety, because my farm will be flooded by the reservoir,” he says. “For more than a year now, Emgesa has promised me a land as compensation, but I have received nothing. The police still have my things; I didn’t claim them because I don’t know where to take them.”
Moises Sanchez is one of thousands affected by the El Quimbo hydroelectric project, which Emgesa (a Colombian company that is actually controlled by the Italian-Spanish Endesa-Enel) is building on the Magdalena River.
Because of the dam, six municipalities of the Department of Huila will be flooded. “Asoquimbo (Association of People Affected by the El Quimbo Hydroelectric) was born in 2009 to defend the rights of the people living within the area of influence of the project,” says Jennifer Chavarro, student and member of Asoquimbo.
The story of El Quimbo is full of contradictions. In 1997, the Ministry of Environment decided not to grant the environmental impact license to the project, considering that it was not feasible because of the damage it would create to “the best lands with agricultural potential of the region.” In 2007, Emgesa requested the license again to the Ministry of Environment. The document was approved on May 15, 2009 based on a concept of the Ministry of Agriculture which overturned the previous verdict: without specifying which conditions had changed, the ministry stated that El Quimbo wouldn’t jeopardize the food security of the region. In addition, the environmental permit has been approved without the Environmental Assessment of Alternatives, a test to assess the options for development of a project, and without taking into account the decision of the Attorney General’s Office, which six days before the granting of the license, requested the Ministry of Environment to refrain from doing it. “The environmental permit in 2009 has been amended three times to support the interests of Emgesa”, complains Miller Dussán Calderon, Surcolombiana University professor and member of Asoquimbo.
Eight months before the approval of the environmental license, the Ministry of Mines and Energy ratified Resolution 321, declaring the 8586 acres needed to build the Quimbo of public utility and social interest. “The disappearance of an area of 8586 hectares cannot be considered a low-impact entity, as the company claims,” writes the Ministry of Environment in the Environmental License.
The damages caused by El Quimbo have been investigated by the Comptroller General of the Republic, which estimates a potential financial loss of 350.644 million pesos (about 200 million dollars). The preliminary investigation led to a referral to the Attorney General’s Office and the application for the initiation of a process of fiscal responsibility against the ANLA (National Environmental Licensing Authority).
In addition, the Colombian Institute of Anthropology and History (ICANH) found that Emgesa affected archaeological heritage and would have to pay between 200 and 300 million pesos (between 110 and 170 thousand dollars).
“According to the license, Emgesa would need to compensate smallholders restoring the properties, so they can settle elsewhere,” says Jesus Elias Benavides, a farmer in La Honda community. However, until today they did not buy even one inch of land and the only compensation that some families received was in cash.
In Colombia, there is a legal vacuum on the displacement caused by the megaprojects, which multinationals can easily exploit. “Eighty percent of foreign direct investment in Colombia is represented by energy-mining projects. This generates a humanitarian tragedy in a country where there already are millions of people displaced by the conflict,” complains Daniel Bookshelves from the National University of Colombia. “The state would have to provide standards for these investments, there is no minimum profile matrix displaced by dams and so each company is doing a review on a whim”.
Emgesa has characterized the people affected by the project of El Quimbo as “direct,” which are those who will lose their homes and their lands, and “indirect”, a definition that includes all the people whose work will be affected, such as day laborers and fishermen. In fact, the local fishermen saw 7.95 tons of fish affected in the period 2009-2011 alone, according to a research by Incoder (Colombian Institute for Rural Development).
However, Emgesa censed a minimal portion of the actual affected people. “Asoquimbo legally should not do the census, but we made a hit record and found that 1,400 people were surveyed,” says Professor Miller Dussán Calderón. We deliver our research to the Comptroller General of the Republic, who proved that effectively Emgesa census methodology was seriously flawed. Then another phenomenon happened, due to the fact that when you stop the production of a land, it affects all the production chains. So traders also wanted to be counted, and now our record gives 9111 people and more are waiting to be registered.
“On January 28, 2013, the Comptroller General’s Office summoned us to a meeting where we deliver the signatures of these people who call themselves affected, requesting a decision on the case.” However, the ANLA announced it has no intention of reopening the census.
