Water Mafia sucking the poor dry in Ecuador

 

Water Mafia is an internationally recognised phenomenon and yet, in Ecuador, it is conspicuously undefined, and therefore, uninvestigated…and consequently unchallenged.

At its most malevolent, water mafia is a sinister, clandestine, symbiotic relationship between public water companies, local politicians, local corporations, private investors, powerful politicians and even legislators. It is an organised crime.

It is a very simple formula. Water scarcity is deliberately created by cutting off the public water supply to a community, replacing it with privately owned, high profit-making, water tanker delivery by trucks.

Consequently, poor, vulnerable communities become totally dependent on the delivery suppliers. There is no price control or quality control. Families have no choice but to pay extortionate prices for water to survive, without knowing where that water is even coming from.

In Ecuador, thousands of families, in communities where most people have no job security or labour rights, spend a large proportion of meagre (day-pay) incomes to simply be able to shower, wash the dishes, clean clothes and flush their toilets and rehydrate. In certain communities, it is the one main factor contributing to their impoverishment.

It feeds on our natural biological dependency for hydration and sanitation.

Families fill plastic containers – enough for two- or three-days water supply – so they are constantly running out and have no choice but to ask (or even beg) for delivery, that can take up to a few days to arrive.

Threats against Activists

Complain and you are refused delivery or worse. Death threats. Eviction threats. Attacks. Assassination attempts. Communities remain silent. Silent communities become targets for further, dark, abuses. We must be grateful for what we get, rather than getting what we deserve, having customer rights, having Human rights.

Meanwhile, millions of dollars are diverted from being a public service income (to fund the maintenance & sustainability of service provision) to a private “service” income (to fund… what clandestine activities exactly?)

Exactly!

Losing such large quantities of unmonitored cash is not an option for the water mafia investors and their “friends.” That message is communicated loud and clear. Speaking out about your inalienable and universal human rights to enough clean water can get you killed.

Water is life. Our life depends on “it.”

Also, speaking out about our inalienable and universal human rights to sufficient, clean water can get you…ta-dam… votes.

So, it becomes local political campaign rhetoric but does not result in any protective actions to guarantee those rights. It does not result in people getting water. It does not involve the “broken pipes” getting “fixed.”

It involves disinformation, corruption and contamination. It involves a succession of successful funding bids to solve the problem. And the “problem” remains unsolved. Photos of reparative work on the public water service pipes are published. And the “problem” remains unsolved.

Proof the authorities narrative is a deception

Two weeks before the National elections, the pipes functioned perfectly in certain sectors - and water flowed through them, cheering up the voters between the town and the village. And then it stopped. And the problem “remains” unsolved.

This status quo requires the silence of the same people who hold the responsibility to protect and defend the citizens that they proclaim to represent. Village Presidents. “Citizen Participation” councils. Parish Councils. Municipalities. Water companies. They all collude in a collective disinterest.

It requires Ombudsman officials, the lawyers whose job it is to defend them, to know, avoid and deny those human rights by negligence.

Amongst the numerous communities who are victims of water mafia exploitation – only one housing project of 500 people, to date, have had their rights represented by a Human Rights organisation in Ecuador. An epic neglect of the Human Rights of Ecuadorian people.

Child Malnutrition and Water Safety

Ecuador has the second highest rate of child malnutrition in Latin America. One out of three children are malnourished and one out of three children are exposed to contaminated water. Unicef recognise an urgent need to solve this problem by addressing the main causes. It’s not just about a lack of food. It’s about a lack of safe water. Contaminated water causes diarrhea and parasites that in turn prevent the body from absorbing nutrients – malnutrition.

To solve child malnutrition safe water is critical.

Elderly die of dehydration

During the Covid 19 lockdown, an elderly couple were found dying of dehydration in their home in the campo near Canoa, Manabi, on the pacific coast of Ecuador. While they both lay in their beds covered in diarrhea, cockroaches had climbed into their empty water bottles to suckle the last droplets. It’s impossible to know how many other deaths were caused by water delivery services that “lost interest” in their customers when they were unable to pay the price.

Meanwhile, in the village of Canoa, families were subjected to educational posters from the Alcadesa, Rosana Cevallos, about the importance of washing their hands. Huddled in their homes with no income, a lack of food and no water they (largely) survived under inhumane sanitary conditions whereby it was impossible to fully protect themselves. They were forced to carry water from contaminated wells in buckets. Skin infections broke out, mostly amongst the children, many of whom were found to be suffering from anemia.

Reclaiming water rights

They hung sheets throughout the village begging the President for water. Simultaneously, the sewage system underneath the village had blocked and was emitting toxic gases and toxic fluid waste onto the streets.

A video was published showing a clandestine make-shift pump to empty the blocked sewage into the river that flows onto the beach.

Another video was filmed showing a tanker that had pumped out some of the accumulated sewage, only to dump it all on the side of main road just outside the village.

Finally, a contractor of the Municipality sent an untrained, unequipped, overweight young man (Cesar Garcia) down a sewage access pipe to unblock it manually. He died almost instantly of asphyxiation, as one might expect. He had no mask, no ladder, no protective clothing. Then, a passerby, Fernando Valencia, was encouraged to go down the pipe to retrieve the body and he also, as one might expect, died of asphyxiation.

The raid on the Municipal Buildings

Around the same time, several police officers from the Intervention and Rescue Group (GIR), the Special Operations Group (GOE), the Order Maintenance Unit (UMO), the Judicial Police and the prosecutor, Marcos Tulio Pico, raided the Municipal buildings as a result of convincing insider evidence of embezzlement of public funds.

The uniformed police officers searched several departments, including Secretariat, Finance, Public Procurement, Public Works, and Legal Affairs. They took six computers and several folders with documents, to be reviewed.

The Prosecutor later dumped the case.

Starving the unfavoured families

Around the same time, witnesses reported that the authorities were distributing emergency food kits to favoured families only, within communities, while walking right past households with equally desperate nutritional needs.

Police quash freedom of speech

Meanwhile, activists had protested for years against a plan hatched by a local “authority figure”, Juan Carlos Quintero, and a communications company to construct a mobile phone tower right in the centre of the village. The community had not been consulted in this decision. Then, in the early hours of the morning, fifty police personnel were engaged to keep the population from leaving their homes – so that the constructors could come in and finish the job.

Court hearings result in nothing

When Human Rights defense lawyers, Inredh, were alerted to the water and food shortage crisis in Canoa they chose to only represent one housing project rather than all the citizens of the village and the surrounding areas who were also being victimized.

This caused conflict amongst the community, dividing the population into those defended… and those undefended.

When Inredh took the Municipality and the water company to court – the accused produced a “fake news” video alleging that, contrary to popular experience, all this time, the urbanization had been provided with water and that the protesters were lying.

Nevertheless, the judge, María Kuffó from the Court of Criminal Guarantees of Sucre issued a protection action demanding that the Municipality, until the public water supply problems are “fixed”, to provide free water to the urbanization by water tanker delivery – insisting that the Municipality apologise and that the Health Ministry visit the housing project to check the health of the children.

They complied for a while and then stopped. Activist demanded that they comply. The case was taken to the provincial court who ratified the right to water for those 500 people. Again, the compliance dwindled into non-compliance.

Four years after the first call, Inredh continue to seek compliance. Inredh also continue to make no effort whatsoever to defend the water rights of any other community. Why?

Further Intimidation of Activists

Meanwhile, the amplification of the voices of victims, caused further problems for the community. One elderly resident, Narcissa Zambrano, was threatened with eviction by Municipal counsellors for appearing in an Inredh video, a threat that they had no authority to carry out. Narcisa is one of the 70% of Ecuadorians of retirement age who do not receive a pension.

Anyone who spoke out on social media, or otherwise, received death threats or were attacked. Luis Ayala, the President of the Housing Project, presented the evidence of the attacks against him to the Prosecutor, including a video recording of one such incident. Eight months later, the prosecutor had done nothing to advance the case.

The intimidation, far from diminishing, had worsened, causing a constant state of alert and fear.

“I do not feel that the relevant authorities are acting diligently to guarantee my rights. The lack of action is clear & has caused the principles of speed, effectiveness, and due process to be violated, so, if it continues, I will take the appropriate measures at the administrative level together with my lawyers,” he explained.

No further advancements in the case have been made since then. Since then, a serious assassination attempt was made against his life. And still, the Prosecutor “failed” to process justice. The Human Rights organisation, Inredh, told Luis that there was nothing that they could do to protect him. He lost work opportunities because he simply couldn’t risk being in an exposed situation where a further attempt to kill him could be made. The water delivery tanks refused to supply his home where his four children live. In effect, they were imprisoned and under a drought siege.

And then, Inredh ghosted Luis Ayala. They simply stopped replying to his correspondence.

Luis was interviewed by Cristian Zurita, investigative reporter who then did nothing. Luis presented the case to the Government's anti-corruption commission, who did absolutely nothing. Amnesty International published a bulletin in the defense of Luis and his community, and the Ecuadorian government responded by doing (guess what?) ... nothing. 

A deathly silence from all those "good people" who pertain to defend Human Rights. 

Until, one day, a fearless, respected investigative journalist and anti-corruption activist decided to run for President. Fernando Villavicencio ran a successful campaign and looked to win, until he was shot dead in broad daylight.

Inredh were answering calls again. They were now in touch with the International NGO Frontline Defenders who were (now) prepared to offer Luis and his family humanitarian protection. Their current location is confidential information.

Of those who dared to speak out in defense of the human rights of the community, around 80% have since fled the country - to avoid repercussions & escape persecution, intimidation and hostility. The remaining 20% do not have the funds or support to escape to safety. They have no support. 

Freedom of Expression is systemically and chronically terrorized.

Knowing the repercussions of using your voice in defense of your people, it is very unlikely that any of the many communities victimized by water mafia will bother to claim their “inalienable” human rights to water. 

Evidently, their human rights are absolutely and effectively alienable.

"Business" as usual

And so, the cartel continues to win the battle to dominate and commodify the water supply to their towns and villages causing a cost-of-living crisis pushing poor families into extreme poverty. And no one asks what activities that money is funding. To date none of the intimidators or attackers have needed to face justice. The municipality, clearly, feel no obligation to comply to judicial protection orders or insist on fair pricing of water delivery services. The Prosecutor displays no willingness to seek justice for the victims of violence.

Effectively, intimidation and violence have been given a carte blanche.

And it is under these circumstances that a prolific, clandestine, illegal child porn film industry established itself in the village, sexually abusing between 200 and 400 children.