Video: the Water March reaches Lima

Analysis of the Conga March

Analysis by José De Echave from Cooperacción, ex-vice minister of the Environment; originally published in La República, February 5.

Conga has joined the long list of iconic conflicts related to mining that have rocked the country from time to time. Tambogrande 2002, Quilish 2004, Conga 2006, Majaz 2007, Puno, Tia Maria, 2011, etc. Each case has made its own contribution to the debate on the mining issue.

Why has Conga become a landmark case? Because it summarizes what is not working for some time in the relationship between mining, communities and environment in the country: misguided strategies from companies, outdated public policy and a blatant lack of political will to change that relationship.

Conga shows that the environmental certification tools do not work: environmental impact studies are outdated, not renewed for 20 years. The report of the Ministry of the Environment uncovered the weaknesses of the Environmental Impact Assessment of Conga, and today hardly anyone dares to defend the project in the form it was initially approved.

Conga has also made clear that the Ministry of Energy and Mines can no longer be judge and jury at the same time, and that the Ministry of Environment should become a real authority and can no longer be ignored.

Conga has opened up a reflection on how public goods in the country should be managed. Can  freely available public goods, in this case a system of lagoons, be replaced, plainly and simply, for reservoirs that will be handled by a private company? Can it be allowed that wetlands disappear and with them the environmental services they provide? Should a company decide what the zone of influence of a project is? Should that not be the task of the State? All these topics require reflection.

Conga has also put on the agenda the need for the country to define a water policy. The headwaters of the watershed are recognized by the Water Resources Act as environmentally vulnerable areas, which must be protected, and might even be declared intangible. Is the State acting according to the law?

Conga will also go down in history as the first case of a mining conflict in Peru and Latin America that brought down an entire cabinet and signaled a shift in the political orientation of a government. Years of mining conflict have taught us that there is no such thing as a single miraculous solution. A set of reforms is needed to channel conflicts through democratic and institutional ways: cross-sectoral and decentralized environmental management, land planning, consultation and timely information for people and local authorities, transparency in decision-making, protection of water sources, public regulatory mechanisms that allow an effective state presence in the regions, are some components of this reform. These tracks of public policies are already being implemented in the major countries with significant mining activity.

The march that is heading from Conga and the lagoons to the capital, puts these issues on the agenda. If nothing changes, the list of conflicts will continue to grow and we, Peruvians,  have already lost the right to be surprised.

The March has started!

Water march (Jonas Hulsens)

The March for Water and Life started on Wednesday in Cajamarca and is now heading to Lima via the coast. On Friday, hundreds of marchers arrived at the city of Trujillo. Watch more pictures of the march or follow the march on Facebook.

European Greens call for cancellation of Conga

Press release by MEP Catherine Grèze (European Greens).

BRUSSELS, 01/02/2012 – From February 1 to 11, 2012, outraged Peruvians across the country will conduct a march and will meet in Lima to protest against yet another gold and copper mining project, the Conga project.

The Conga project, bordering the city of Celendin in the region of Cajamarca, northern Peru, runs the risk of polluting major local ecosystems, including groundwater. The project is initiated by the mining company Yanacocha, Latin America’s first gold producer. For 20 years, the mine in Cajamarca, operated by the same company, has caused much irreversible pollution.

Construction of the new Conga mine has been frozen since November following an uprising of indigenous peoples and a strike of 11 days. To end the protests, the Peruvian government declared a state of emergency in four provinces in the region.

Catherine Grèze, MEP, said that “Peru has ratified the Convention 169 of the International Labour Organisation in 1994. Article 15 requires the state to consult the people before undertaking or permitting any programs for the exploration or exploitation of resources pertaining to their lands. Such consultation has not occurred in the case of the Conga, which goes against the rights of indigenous peoples.”

Due to the contamination of groundwater, this new project endangers twenty centennial lagoons, essential for the life of local communities, for supplying villages and farms nearby. More than 2 years after the massacre of Bagua, where indigenous people have fought against massive deforestation, Peru is again faced with a large-scale refusal to its policy of massive mining projects.

Catherine Grèze and the whole group of Greens within the European Parliament express their solidarity with this great march for water. They ask the Peruvian State to stop the proposed mine. The state would receive in any case very little profit (12%) from the mine, in exchange for a total destruction of ecosystem services and public goods with a very high natural value, essential for local natural balance. They also recall that in the coming months, the new multi-trade agreement between the European Union, Peru and Colombia will be voted on in Parliament. This agreement is based on a provision of human rights. The Conga situation risks to strongly influence the behavior of MEPs voting on this agreement.

Small brooks make the great river of life

The text below is a translation of the call to join the Water March starting today in Cajamarca.

Since the morning of Friday the 9th of November on which,  together with the people moving from Cajamarca, we organized the Great National Water March. Many social organizations,  defense  fronts, numerous groups of citizens, university students, artists, associations, democratic parties and liberalists, just like little brooks, were moving and increasing in number  to form part of the March in order to defend the right to water.

There are diverse actions initiated all over the country: preparation and spread of posters, chants and drawings; organization of meetings; the scheduling  of vigils and prayers in evangelic and catholic churches; article writing; murals; demonstrations; cultural events; sending of hundreds of electronic communications in order to gain more and more participants; expression of interesting messages, announcements  and ideas via social networks; spreading  of artistic photos, creative videos and testimonials as they show the battle of the Andean villages for water.

All of those are citizens’ initiatives who fully support the noble fight of the village of Cajamarca which is defending itself from the aggression coming from the Conga Mines, which affirms that  water is an intrinsic human right.  Recently in Lima, there was a meeting of more than 70 delegates from various regions, unions and groups of citizens from the whole country.  The spirit was of brotherhood, solidarity and commitment to defending the right to water in the context of climate change which makes the poor more vulnerable.

Marco Arana, coordinator of the March (Tierra y Libertad)

The agreements that were made, were marked by the generosity of those who came together to support the cause of the social movement  which claims its right to be consulted, respected and heard in the decisions about its development model ;  its socially fair participation in economic growth;  the prohibition of the headwaters mining and the mining of cyanide and mercury which causes a lot of damage to soil and water,  and also so much harm to those who try to defend it, as they are being slandered, persecuted, reported, repressed, imprisoned, wounded and in some cases even killed  as it has happened  in Piura, Cajamarca and the Tambo Valley.

The March for Water will start from the lagoons of Cajamarca on the 1st of February and will get to Lima on Thursday the  9th and will finish there on Saturday the 11th,  with the installation of the National Water Justice Forum, which purpose is  to discuss publically and programmatically the problem of water and to propose laws and policies which will be propelled from then on.

The exclusive, racist and corrupt sectors of the country are going to try to do anything that is possible to discredit the character of the March for Water, looking for ways to create confusion and anxiety so that the Gran Lima stays in coma and doesn’t show its solidarity with the marching villages.
We cannot permit that the creators of fright and fear paralyse the solidarity of Lima! The character of the March is completely peaceful, broad, democratic and even festive.

None of the organizations and citizens that we summon, is coming with suspicion or hidden interest, but what they come with is hope for a change, willingness to work and contribute, by bringing more and more citizens, promoting minka   that multiple knowledge and capacities of the people of the Amazon, the mountains and coast unite and  hands to build awareness and a new political attitude: in which the defense of human dignity and respect for environmental rights and all living creatures that are taken in by Pachamama, we feel  actively and undeniably committed, knowing that in Peru, we cannot permit ourselves the luxury of living without defending water and land and to turn our backs on its hoarding, destruction or contamination as it has been happening.

The participants of the March will become watchmen so that the March doesn’t become infiltrated by those who propagate injustice, abuse, corruption,  either from the companies, political groups that advocate violence, or even from groups of citizens legitimately indignant at the hard situation that they had to face, that made them feel tired of waiting. It is the latter that us the marchers, want to bring back the hope to.

We know that the act of defending life expressed by the citizens, like the March for Water, cannot,  in any way, justify the use of violence, that is why we want to state that we refuse that some of the mainstream media in the capital spread misinterpretations and calumnies which have well planned political objectives: to delegitimize, discredit, and permit that the abuse against the poorest villages and the destruction of the Mother Earth and water continues.

Thinking of those who unfairly criticize the villages that defend the right to the water, we declare that the organizers and those who carry out the March, are driven by  democratic values  that are shared with the majority of Peruvians: the unlimited defense of the human rights, the territorial rights of the indigenous villages and rural communities, the necessity to decentralize and strengthen the power of municipality, the necessity of broader environmental awareness,  the fight against discrimination, racism and all forms of social exclusion, the respect for the cultural, artistic, sexual and ethnic diversity; the fight against corruption, the respect for freedom of worship in a secular state and all the remaining  values that contribute to the enrichment and deepen democracy.

Given that we need to coordinate actions, foster the emergence of good will of the people, together with creativity and spontaneity that has been growing in strength to make the March successful, we call for you to get in touch, issue, support in various ways, actively participate with your organizations, family members and friends, to join this citizens’ initiative in solidarity with the battle of the village of Cajamarca.  As there are many tasks planned, we are hoping for a lot of generosity, availability, trust and friendship involved in the response.

Our march is not a form of sacrifice, on the contrary it is a way to express joy, the feeling of hope,  along with all those people who know that only by making ourselves walk surrounded by others with the same aim, we will go the way for a better country for the future generations. That is why we inscribe the March in the spirit of the construction of a new country, challenging the pessimism of those who believe that everything has been lost.

The March walkers know that there is yet much more to win and it mustn’t be stopped by greed, selfishness, indifference and especially not by those who have held the political and economic power and who still now manipulate the mainstream media in order to defend the interests of the small groups that are in power.

A country that is more faire, brotherly and supportive decided to march, as the goal to defense water together with Pachamama lead, inspire and unite them. Welcome to the GREAT NATIONAL WATER MARCH, each one of you will form a part of the small springs and streams which feed the big river that gives us life and brings back hope.

Marco Arana
National Coordinator of the Water March
Peru, 2012