Study 3: Ecodestruction and the Right to Food: The Cases of Water ...

Starving the Future Study 3
Ecological Impact
The plant was supposed to be an environmentally friendly local economic potential as it is using sugar cane
waste bagasse in the production process and also because an effective effluent treatment plant was to be
built along with the factory. TNPL, however, has turned out to be a major harm for the local environment
and it dangerously reduces the access to food of the local smallholders: TNPL has a huge water demand,
pumped from the Cauvery river, the lifeline of Tamilnadu. Furthermore, the effluent treatment plant did not
let the 38 tons of wastes per day off on a tract of dry waste land, as foreseen in the original plans, but into a
major canal and some irrigation drainage of the Cauvery river. This discharge heavily polluted the water as
no chemical water treatment was implemented, so that the water turned saline. Moreover, a commissioned
assessment on the pollution level in the area proved that is far higher than the norm as stated by the Indian
Bureau of Standards.
Colombia
Fumigation leading to heavy pollution of peasants’ water sources.
The "war" led by some Southamerican states, and especially Colombia, against illegal crops has
already proved to have severe impacts on the environment and freshwater systems. Heavily subsidised
by the US government, the so-called Plan Colombia has not produced evidence of its effectiveness in
terms of reduction of drug traffic. Nevertheless, it has contributed to the worsening food situation of
peasants and indigenous communities of the Amazon region – primarily because no sustainable and
satisfactory alternatives are proposed for the loss of livelihoods and crops. Moreover the technique used
in the fumigation process severely damages the local ecosystems and thus the food producing
resources of the local population. Water sources are particularly at risk because of the contamination by
the chemicals used (gliphosphate). Water wells and ground water are affected through spraying and
infiltration in soils. One of the major concerns of opponents to the method is the incapacity to really
control where the chemicals land. This makes it unlikely that only illegal crops are destroyed and that
vital water sources are not contaminated.
As noted in section II.A, big dams and hydroelectricity facilities have greatly altered freshwater systems.
Free flowing rivers have globally become rare and the basins of world major rivers, on which the survival
of millions of people directly depends, have faced major disruptions. Hydropower is gaining interest and
share in the energy production as the main and fast developing renewable energy. Construction of big
dams and hydroplants, however, is often linked to violations of people’s right to feed themselves. The
benefits accrue to urban areas and industrial centres (high consumers of water and energy) and to large
scale irrigation projects for agribusiness. There has been quite a number of FIAN interventions in this
context. Two of them are the Urra 1 project in Colombia and the Biobio project in Chile:
Case 4 (Sinú Valley/Colombia, 2000)
Power plant destroys the means of subsistence of fisherfolks and peasants.
The Sinú river and its basin are of special cultural and historical importance. The establishment of the
hydroelectric power plant Urra 1 on the Sinú has led to a large number of violations of the rights of the
indigenous, peasants and fishing communities. Inspite of international protests, the fishers and peasant
communities, especially those down the river Sinú, still have to struggle for an improvement of their
situation. A large number of families left their original location as a consequence of the complete
economic disintegration, poverty, hunger and misery. The water level decreased by 75%, thereby
reducing the area’s fishing resources. Peasants’ crops, particularly rice, were also adversely affected.
Consequently, in 1999 the Association of Growers for the Community Development of the Ciénaga
Grande de Lorica (ASPROCIG) took a case against the enterprise Urra 1 to court. The Colombian
Constitutional Court (c.p. Sentencia No. T-194/99) decided in favour of the association. Yet, so far, the
FIAN International 126
June 2002