Communities in Esmeraldas province in northern Ecuador have denounced the government’s failure to act following one of the country’s biggest oil spills in recent history.
A section of the Trans-Ecuadorian Oil Pipeline — a 500 kilometre-long pipeline that transports about 268,000 barrels worth of crude oil from the Amazon region to the coast every day — ruptured on March 13 following a landslide. Oil erupted for several hours into the Esmeraldas River, flowing at least 80km downstream to the coast and into other tributaries.
Although Petroecuador — the state-owned oil company that owns the pipeline — has still refused to confirm the size of the spill, it is estimated that at least 29,000 barrels (4.6 million litres) of oil were released.
Crude oil coated river systems, leaving two of the Esmeraldas River’s tributaries, the Viche and Caple rivers without oxygen, which kills aquatic life. At the Esmeraldas River Estuary Mangrove Wildlife Refuge, a 242-hectare protected area at the mouth of the Esmeraldas River with the Pacific Ocean, crude oil blanketed mangrove channels, poisoning the ecosystem.
The spill has impacted about half a million people, leaving entire communities without drinking water for more than a week. Communities were forced to rely on “greasy” water trucked in by Petroecuador, with private trucks charging exorbitant prices.
Thousands of people reported health impacts from the spill, such as respiratory issues, skin conditions and stomach problems.
Gov’t response
Esmeraldas residents blocked roads with burning tyres and empty water containers on March 18 over the Daniel Noboa government’s broken promise to provide drinking water in a timely manner.
Instead, the government initially sent the military to Esmeraldas, which was denounced by a local resident: “We’re asking for water, and they send us soldiers!”
Furthermore, the government attempted to obfuscate responsibility for the event, with energy minister Inés Manzano claiming on March 20 that the spill was caused by “sabotage” to the pipeline — a claim that was contradicted by Petroecuador’s general manager.
Ahead of the presidential election run-off next month, the Noboa government is seeking to deflect blame away from energy insecurity and, now, environmental crises that it has overseen since 2023.
Noboa finally signed an executive decree on March 22 forcing Petroecuador to give each affected family a one-off payment of US$470 (A$747.76) as “compensation”.
However, the paltry amount pales in comparison to the long-lasting impacts of the oil spill, which has destroyed livelihoods dependent on agriculture, fishing and tourism.
Environmental racism
About 53% of the population of Esmeraldas province identify as persons of African descent, which means they face structural racism, discrimination and criminalisation.
The region’s population was subjected to the brutality of Noboa’s “Plan Phoenix” — large-scale police and military operations purportedly to combat “terrorists” — which resulted in thousands of arrests, cases of torture, extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances last year.
Sociologist Ismael Bernal, speaking to Radio Pichincha following the March 13 oil spill, said that the “criminalisation of our territories has been constant”. He highlighted that the majority of enforced disappearances in the country last year occurred in Esmeraldas.
Bernal called the latest oil spill a case of “ecocide” and “environmental racism”.
He said that the frequent oil spills in Esmeraldas from the pipeline are due to a “recurring practice of non-repair, non-evaluation and non-maintenance”.
Petroecuador has knowingly operated the pipeline for years without sufficient personnel to undertake maintenance and respond to problems.
Amid the ongoing social and environmental crisis, Petroecuador resumed the transportation of crude oil through the pipeline on March 19, with the repaired section of pipeline in the same place where the landslide occurred.
Given that the pipeline traverses a region prone to earthquakes, landslides and flooding, it is almost inevitable that disasters such as the March 13 spill will occur again. The pipeline has ruptured 77 times since it became operational in 1972, spilling at least 600,000 barrels (97.6 million litres) of oil into the surrounding land and waterways.