Over 14,000 Children Die After Colombian Gov’t Sells Indigenous Peoples’ Drinking Water To Western Mining Corporations – Carib Flame
▻http://www.caribflame.com/2017/05/over-14000-children-die-after-colombian-govt-sells-indigenous-peoples-dr
On Colombia’s arid Guajira Peninsula a quiet effort to eradicate the Wayuú people, Colombia’s largest indigenous group, has entered its sixth year. The Colombian government and Western mining corporations are complicit in this attempt to wipe the group off of Colombia’s map. Apparently President Trump does not care at all that these “beautiful babies” are dying from an easily preventable situation.
Victims of a devastating, manufactured drought, the Wayuú are fighting for their very survival, as thousands of children die every year. The deaths of nearly 5,000 children due to thirst or malnutrition have been documented since 2011, though the Wayuú themselves claim that the figure tops 14,000, according to Mint Press News.
The Colombian government, as well as the Western media, blame the drought on climate change and weather patterns like El Niño. What they have tried to avoid acknowledging is the 2011 construction of the Cercado Dam, which diverted the Ranchería River from its natural course. The government claimed that building the dam would improve the lives of everyone in the region by supplying nine towns with a second source of drinking water, employing 1,000 workers and providing irrigation for 18,500 hectares of farmland.
But the Ranchería is the only river on the Guajira Peninsula, as well as the only source of drinking water for the Wayuú people. The consequences of the river’s disappearance have been catastrophic. Now, the Wayuú must walk more than three hours to draw drinking water from wells, with each person living off of less than 0.7 liters a day. What little water they do obtain is contaminated with bacteria and salt, which has caused severe diarrhea and cholera to run rampant among their quickly dwindling population.
#Colombie #sécheresse #climat #extraction #malnutrition #soif #eau #mort
