{"id":15337,"date":"2015-03-15T13:15:28","date_gmt":"2015-03-15T18:15:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/despacio.org\/?p=15337"},"modified":"2015-03-15T13:15:28","modified_gmt":"2015-03-15T18:15:28","slug":"drought-and-urban-development-iii","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/despacio.org\/en\/2015\/03\/15\/drought-and-urban-development-iii\/","title":{"rendered":"Drought and Urban Development (III)"},"content":{"rendered":"

This is the third and final part of the blog series “Drought and Urban Development.\u00a0Click for Part I<\/a> (on the U.S. Southwest) and Part II <\/a>(North China Plain). Here we turn\u00a0to Colombia, looking at the devastating drought that hit its Caribbean region last year.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Part III: Colombia’s Caribbean\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"El<\/a>

El Cerrej\u00f3n mine in La Guajira, Colombia<\/p><\/div>\n

Colombia\u2019s Caribbean region, home to around nine million people, also faced an historic drought last year, particularly in La Guajira department. The resulting water scarcity exposed a conflict between industrial and subsistence uses of water, between coal mining and daily existence. Nearly half of La Guajira\u2019s residents are indigenous\u2014mostly Wayuu\u2014and around 70% live in poverty<\/a> (categories that overlap significantly).\u00a0The drought killed more than 15,000 domesticated animals<\/a> in the department last year, one of the main forms of subsistence for its indigenous people.\u00a0The region\u2019s inhabitants survive on an average of 0.7 L\/day<\/a>, far below the 50 liters daily the UN considers a minimum for a dignified life.\u00a0To confront the problem, last year the IDB and Colciencias funded the construction of solar-powered wells<\/a> around the city of Maicao. Projects like these are important to deal with the water crisis but it is also worth asking why there is so little water right now in La Guajira and what can be done about this problem.<\/p>\n

Part of the explanation is the environment. The Caribbean region possesses only 8% of Colombia\u2019s<\/a> water resources and much of La Guajira is desert. Scientists predict a precipitation reduction of between 10 and 30%<\/a> by 2040 in 20% of the country, particularly in the Andean and Caribbean regions.\u00a0Another is El Ni\u00f1o, which many of the media sources covering the drought last summer pointed to as a cause. However, this seems like a limited explanation, given that 2014 was in fact a relatively weak El Ni\u00f1o year<\/a>.\u00a0The Colombian water rights group CENSAT<\/a> considers blaming El Ni\u00f1o a concealment of more likely causes of drought and along with indigenous groups<\/a> in La Guajira has singled out El Cerrej\u00f3n, one of the world\u2019s largest open-pit coalmines, as a chief cause of water pollution and waste in the region.\u00a0El Cerrej\u00f3n occupies approximately 69,000 hectares<\/a> of land near the Venezuela border and produces around 33 million tons of coal every year, constituting 51% of La Guajira\u2019s GDP<\/a> (although only 1%<\/a> of its employees are indigenous).\u00a0Although many locals have testified<\/a> to the gradual contamination and disappearance of rivers and streams since the arrival of the mine around thirty years ago, there unfortunately has not been sufficient empirical research to draw a causal link between coal mining and drought.\u00a0In any case, pursuing extractive megaprojects as the region dries up is unwise and unsustainable.<\/p>\n

The extraction of fossil fuels in Colombia has risen exponentially since El Cerrej\u00f3n began operations in 1982. Coal titles in the country increased 87%<\/a> between 2004 and 2007. \u00a0According to the UNDP<\/a>, if this trend continues, it will reduce the country\u2019s renewable water resources and increase water acidity.The effects of coal mining on the water supply are many. The extraction process at El Cerrej\u00f3n generates ten tons of waste<\/a> for each ton of coal, uses approximately 17,000 m3<\/sup><\/a>\u00a0of water each day just to keep the dust on the roads from rising up, and has contaminated much of the R\u00edo Rancher\u00eda, the department\u2019s primary river.\u00a0Furthermore, coal mining generates toxic byproducts<\/a>, including sulfurs and heavy metals like arsenic and mercury that dissolve and contaminate the groundwater.\u00a0This water pollution creates problems for public health, food sovereignty and biodiversity. What is more, in a time of drought, it further limits the water supply. Finally, mining megaprojects have had negative social effects on the region, including the resettlement of around 7000 Wayuus<\/a>. La Guajira\u2019s social indicators<\/a> remain some of the lowest in the country, despite being the third-highest recipient of royalties. Access to sewage and drinkable water is below 4% and an infant mortality rate three times the national average.<\/p>\n

These externalities are not included in fossil fuel prices, however, creating what Mauricio Cabrera Leal and Julio Fierro Morales called an \u201cunequal ecological exchange<\/a>\u201d and an \u201cenvironmental debt\u201d between Colombia and importing nations.\u00a0Colombia is in fact the world\u2019s fourth-largest coal exporter<\/a> and El Cerrej\u00f3n is one of its largest mines, accounting for 42.6%<\/a> of its exports in 2011.\u00a0The mine is a joint venture of the Anglo American (British), Glencore (Swiss-British), and BHP Billiton (Australian-British) mining companies, three of the worlds largest.\u00a0 All of El Cerrej\u00f3n\u2019s coal is for export<\/a>, and in 2010, around 46%<\/a> of it went to Europe.\u00a0It is important to note that nearly all the EU-28 nations are net coal importers and Colombia, at 24%, is in fact the bloc\u2019s second largest supplier<\/a> after Russia.\u00a0Given that around 30% of electricity in Europe is coal-powered<\/a>, it is therefore likely that much of El Cerrej\u00f3n\u2019s coal goes toward electricity production.\u00a0Alarmingly, as the international community attempts to set climate targets and cut emissions, economic powerhouses Germany and the U.K. have increased coal burning<\/a> by 13 and 22% respectively in the past four years.\u00a0Importation allows developed European countries to continue to burn coal without dealing with the environmental and social consequences that result from its extraction.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Series Conclusion <\/strong><\/p>\n

These droughts in the U.S. Southwest, the North China Plain, and in Colombia\u2019s Caribbean are neither normal cyclical phenomena nor simple results of climate change. They, like climate change, are consequences of the way we build and sustain urban life. A growing urban population will put further strain on existing residential, agricultural, industrial and energy models and consequently on the water supply. The cracks have already appeared and the solutions discussed here\u2014massive irrigation and diversion projects, groundwater mining, and expansion of fossil fuel markets\u2014will only delay and exacerbate water crises.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is the third and final part of the blog series “Drought and Urban Development.\u00a0Click for Part I (on the U.S. Southwest) and Part II (North China Plain). Here we turn\u00a0to Colombia, looking at the devastating drought that hit its Caribbean region last year.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[176,154,177,116,127],"class_list":["post-15337","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sin-categoria","tag-colombia-en","tag-drought","tag-mining","tag-urban-development","tag-water"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/despacio.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15337","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/despacio.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/despacio.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/despacio.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/despacio.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15337"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/despacio.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15337\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/despacio.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15337"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/despacio.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15337"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/despacio.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15337"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}