Cementos Argos accused of polluting environmental resources in Boyacá

Complaints about pollution are made through Duitama's representative, Zamir Silva, who commented with the inhabitants of the Tocogua village at a work table that was being advanced, the effects they are suffering in the area of deforestation and the negative environmental impact on their watersheds allegedly generated by the Argos company.

Representative Silva stressed that these companies must have a social commitment to the communities in which they come to work: “This is causing concern and although it is true the ANLA has granted permission to operate Argos, but it has a legal obligation of social and environmental responsibilities,” he said.

Silva also said that it is necessary for companies to be able to establish spaces for consultation with the community, which is why it is necessary to have knowledge of the environmental plan: “We want to know the environmental management and social responsibility plan and we are going to make a field visit with the aim of specifying the coordinates where it is located presenting this situation”, explained the representative of Duitama.

Although they did not give specific figures of the number of hectares that would be allegedly affected by Argos, the representative Silva, warned that there are several families who do not have an aqueduct line to provide them with the vital liquid, which is why they had to go to the resource of a popular action.

For its part, Argos announced that it began the process to establish a working group with the community to be able to socialize its environmental and social responsibility plans at the San Antonio mine.

Regarding more environmental information in the country, the young Colombian environmentalist Yuvelis Natalia Morales, 21 years old and member of the AguaWil Committee and the Colombia Free Fracking Alliance, received last Tuesday, March 8 in Paris (France), the Marianne Initiative Prize for Women Human Rights Defenders.

During the ceremony, the Puerto Wilches (Santander) born in Puerto Wilches (Santander) met with the President of France, Emmanuel Macron, to express her concerns about the implementation of 'fracking' in the country.

The private meeting was held at the Eliseo Palace in the French capital and, in her speech, the Colombian environmentalist presented to the French president and his Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs, Jean-Yves Le Drian, the situation of systematic violence against environmental defenders who oppose fracking in Colombia, and denounced the double speech of President Iván Duque, who “travels the world talking about the protection of the environment and the planet, while his policies in Colombia destroy nature and contribute to increasing the emission of gases that generate the climate crisis.”

Due to the serious and repeated threats to her life, on February 16, the Santander woman had to leave the country as a result of her activism and environmental struggle against the 'fracking' pilots that Ecopetrol and ExxonMobil intend to do in her native Puerto Wilches.

The Colombia Free Fracking Alliance denounced on February 21 the situation of the environmental leader. “The threats returned in recent days, after his leadership in a peaceful sit-in against the National Environmental Licensing Authority (ANLA) Hearing on the Kalé 'fracking' pilot,” which meant that Morales left for France to seek protection under the Marianne Initiative of Emmanuel Macron's government.

The Kalé project, according to Ecopetrol, consists of “a platform that includes the drilling of a horizontal well, an injector well and a well that characterizes deep aquifers”. The Colombian company and ExxonMobil Exploration Colombia Limited requested approval from the National Hydrocarbons Agency to jointly develop the project in the municipality of Puerto Wilches, Santander. The ANH approved joint implementation on 11 June 2021.

KEEP READING: