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In April 2020
in the Ecuadorian Amazon, the Napo River and one of
its tributaries, the Coca River, ran dark with oil. A
landslide had ruptured three pipelines, setting in motion a
spill of over 15,000 gallons of oil, stacking an
environmental disaster on top of the existing COVID-19
crisis. Hundreds of thousands of people were directly
and indirectly affected, many of them from the nearby
Indigenous communities that rely on the river for food, water,
income, and cultural practices. The Ecuadorian
government did not immediately respond or admit to the oil
spill, so people continued to use the river to fish, to swim,
to boat, and to drink from. And now, over a year later, these rivers are
still polluted, and many have no choice but to use the
poisonous water and surrounding soil.
The Indigenous people who rely
on the Napo and Coca Rivers have a right to clean water, food,
and health. But instead, they are being forced to
subsist on oil-filled water and fuel-soaked soil, dooming
themselves and their families to skin and stomach diseases
that could affect them for years and years to come.
This is a gross human rights violation, not to mention a worst
case scenario for local animal and plant life — the
area where the spill occurred is very close to YasunÃ
National Park, one of the most biodiverse areas in the world.
Please sign the petition and urge the Ecuadorian
government to provide funding and assistance to the people
affected, and clean up every last ounce of oil from this
spill!
Thank you,
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Lauren
The Care2 Petitions Team
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P.S. A year
after a massive oil spill in Ecuador's rivers, people and
ecosystems are still struggling. Sign the petition today. |
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