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Category: Media Releases
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Published: Thursday, 23 December 2021 09:17
THE GENERAL LAW ON WATER RESOURCES APPROVED BY THE LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY LEGALIZES WATER INJUSTICE, PROMOTES THE THEFT AND DISPOSSESSION OF WATER IN THE TERRITORIES
San Salvador, December 22, 2021. On December 21 of this year, the ruling party of the Legislative Assembly approved the General Law on Water Resources. Following the approval, environmental organizations such as the Water Forum, the National Alliance against the Privatization of Water, the Roundtable of Churches in El Salvador and the Central American University state the following:
The Law continues to harm the rural and urban Community Water Systems. It maintains the privatizing spirit in which it was presented last June by the President of the Republic. It is a Law that deepens water injustice as it includes mechanisms that will generate more injustice, such as the collection of the taxes from community water systems, and the use of water supply systems that don’t consider access for the population's domestic consumption a priority.
In El Salvador, there are more than 2,500 rural and community water systems that supply almost 25% of the Salvadoran population. The absence of the State that has historically neglected its responsibility has forced local communities to assume water supply by themselves, with the support of NGOs and international aid.
Although the Law recognizes community water systems in a nominal way, it does not provide a mechanism to recognize their non-profit social function and the exemption from paying taxes. By not incorporating this mechanism, community water systems will be obliged to pay taxes and increase service rates of their users, who are often the most impoverished communities in the country.
Although the Law regulates domestic use and human consumption as a priority, it does not regulate how water should be supplied to populations. The first two meet the basic family needs for food, personal hygiene, cleaning, including raising domestic animals that do not constitute a commercial or lucrative activity; but the supply systems for populations should be collective, not for profit and capable of providing water in sufficient quantity and quality for the communities. The community water systems are a good example of these systems. Consequently, by not incorporating a regulation for water supply as priority for domestic use in the article 63, the law would generate a conflict between the supply for the general population and the supply for industrial use, risking that supply systems prioritize the latter.
The law does not solve the injustice generated by the agreements signed between ANDA and construction companies. Another mechanism that generates water injustice, and favors theft and dispossession, are the private agreements between ANDA (National Association for the Management of Sewers and Aqueducts) and the oligarchies of the construction industry. This Government continues to sign agreements between ANDA and the construction oligarchies, providing them with water extraction concessions to supply their urban development projects, thereby generating scarcity in impoverished populations; two emblematic cases of these practices are the Agreements signed between ANDA and the Dueñas and Poma families, which unconstitutionally allocate more than 25 million liters of water per day. With this amount of water ANDA could supply half a million people, ending shortages and injustice in impoverished municipalities of Apopa, Tonacatepeque, Cuscatancingo, Soyapango, Ilopango and San Martín.
This Law does not resolve these injustices, because its content does not regulate ANDA´s operations, it does not oblige them to review the current cooperation agreements with construction companies, and it does not make it subordinate to the ASA (Salvadorean Water Authority) established in the law. Considering that the ASA will be in charge of reviewing such permits and will be the competent authority to process new authorizations for exploitation in accordance with the respective regulations; the use of water for large urban projects should be considered as industrial and commercial projects, due to their lucrative purpose, as such they should be expressly regulated so that their permits are not prioritized as priority needs, as it has been done to date.
The Law does not solve the injustice that is generated in the coastal marine territory of the country. The illegal exploitation carried out by the sugar agribusiness in the coastal zone, who hide behind the structural weaknesses of the MAG (Ministry of Agriculture), entity in charge of regulating the use of water for agricultural irrigation, benefits the sugar oligarchy (headed by the Regalado and Wright Families) who freely use all the surface and groundwater of the coastal territories, often times without permits and paying a pittance for its use. This Law, however, does not seek to strengthen the institutional framework of the MAG.
The Law denies citizen participation. This Law creates a bureaucratic, vertical and centralized institutional framework that continues to deny citizen participation by not recognizing the territorial watershed committee structure proposed by social organizations.
This Law is generic as it does not try to resolve the crisis situation in the country. It does not develop a sustainable watershed management system at the national level, nor it establishes measures aimed at the protection and conservation of the Lempa River. Despite the fact that is the most important strategic aquifer reserve in the country and that it is currently in crisis, it does not grant a Special Administration Regime, nor does it address in detail a Water Planning System, nor the cross-border threats that may impact its basin.
It is a law that will privatize water in El Salvador. According to Article 71 of the law, the ASA will authorize the use of water to private sectors in quantities equal to or greater than 365,000 cubic meters of water per year for 15 renewable years, with no upper limit on the quantity of water concessions for commercial purposes, compromising the priorities for domestic human consumption and creating conditions for the violation of the human right to water of the population, particularly the poorest and most vulnerable.
As social organizations, we will continue to demand a General Water Law that guarantees sustainability and the human rights of the population, above the interests of any oligarchic group in the country.
Water is not for sale, it is cared for and defended!
Water is a right, not a commodity!
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Category: Media Releases
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Published: Thursday, 16 December 2021 17:36
Communique: Community organizations fear the return of metal mining El Salvador
San Salvador December 16, 2021 - Only four years have passed since El Salvador banned metal mining in all its forms. The struggle led by communities affected by the threat of mining lasted more than twelve years, and this struggle was joined by different sectors of Salvadoran society and the international community that were aware of the impacts that mining exploitation would have on water and the environment in general.
In recent days we have learned that the Salvadoran government has approached specialists from the Intergovernmental Forum on Mining, Minerals, Metals and Development (IGF), an organization of Canadian origin that promotes best practices of mining in its member countries. According to policy statements of this institution, "the objectives of the Forum are to improve and promote the contribution of the mining, minerals and metals sector to sustainable development and poverty reduction."
Some representatives of this organization visited our country a couple of weeks ago and held meetings with different government institutions such as the Ministries of the Environment; Economy, through its Hydrocarbons and Mines Directorate; Public Works; Foreign Relations and Finance; as well as the Central Reserve Bank, Some municipalities, FOVIAL; and with some institutions in the private sector and academia.
According to the Ministry of the Environment, MARN, the visit of the Forum specialists was aimed at determining the viability of quarrying to obtain raw materials for the construction industry. MARN also stated that "at the end of the visit of the IGF consultants, they expected to have a diagnostic of the mining industry in El Salvador and to know the real situation of the resources in order to evaluate the social, economic, legal and environmental aspects"
According to MARN, “El Salvador recently joined this Forum, which includes 78 countries around the world and which provides a series of services to its members, such as sector evaluations; capacity building and individualized technical assistance; orientation documents and conferences that explore best practices and offer an opportunity to engage with industry and civil society, among others”. In other words, it is the organization in charge of exchanging “mirrors for gold” on behalf of the mining industry.
Similarly, it draws out attention the introduction legislation creating the General Directorate of Energy, Hydrocarbons and Mines, approved by the Legislative Assembly on October 26. The objectives of this new Directorate are to authorize, regulate and supervise the operation of those who participate in mining activities, without distinguishing between metallic and non-metallic mining. It also proposes obtaining mining resources as a "duty of the State" and establishes among the powers of the new Directorate, the capacity to establish, maintain and promote cooperative relations with foreign and multilateral institutions or organizations "linked to the mining sector; put out to tender for the exploration of special areas where deposits with proven economic potential are located; and coordinate with the Ministry of the Environment the evaluation procedures for mining and quarry exploration proposals.
These latest events cause alarm because they seem aimed at allowing activities related to metal mining in the country. In addition, these actions of the government disregard the anti-mining struggle that the country experienced for more than twelve years and for which at least four environmentalists from Cabañas who offered their lives so that Canadian mining companies such as Pacific Rim would not settle in the country.
The communities, social organizations, churches, universities and other sectors of Salvadoran society who fought for the ban on metallic mining remain convinced that the country is not prepared for the repeal of the Law of Prohibition of Metallic Mining. It is clear that the ecological conditions why metallic mining was banned have not been overcome in the country and, on the contrary, the environmental and water crisis continues to worsen day by day.
In this sense, as civil society organizations that at that time fought for the prohibition of metallic mining, we call on the Salvadoran population to be attentive to the proposals that the Intergovernmental Forum on Mining, Minerals, Metals and Development (IGF ) will present to the Government, since a potential reversal of the Law for the Prohibition of Metallic Mining would generate possible conflicts between communities and mining companies, exacerbate the country's water and environmental crisis and foster even more conflicts over land and water.
In the same way, we demand that the Executive Branch and the Legislative Assembly refrain from repealing the prohibition law and we demand that the Intergovernmental Forum on Mining, Minerals, Metals and Development be publicly transparent when presenting the results of their visit to El Salvador.
Finally, we demand that the Legislative Assembly accelerate the ratification of the human right to water in the Constitution and expedite the approval of a general water law that guarantees, as a priority, water for domestic consumption, which is economically accessible and sufficient in quality and quantity for our communities.
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Category: Mining prohibition El Salvador
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Published: Tuesday, 14 December 2021 08:10
*ANDRES MCKINLEY - El Faro
On March 29, 2017, the Salvadoran population celebrated with joy, hope and pride the approval of a law prohibiting metallic mining in all of its forms at the national level. This historic victory of a country known primarily for its worrisome levels of social violence, overpopulation, migration and environmental deterioration, rendered El Salvador the first nation in the world to responsibly analyze the high costs of metallic mining and exercise its right to say “No". Nevertheless, despite El Salvador's environmental vulnerability, the clear threat posed by metal mining and the strong and clear public rejection of this industry, there are worrying signs that suggest that the government of Nayib Bukele, with its puppet Legislative Assembly, are considering opening the door to metal exploration and exploitation again.
The government has shown little interest to date in environmental issues, and its policies and practices confirm the absence of an environmental conscience. Faced with the country's financial crisis, the current administration views metal mining as a potential source of income for a deeply indebted State, and it is widely known that the president maintains close relationships with large investors in this industry.
Instead of complying with the current law prohibiting metallic mining, the government, in May of this year, joined an international network of over 50 countries promoting mining called the Intergovernmental Forum on Mining, Metals and Sustainable Development and based in Ottawa, Canada. Two participants in the Forum, and members of the board of directors of the Alliance for Responsible Mining (ARM), were recently in the country to “promote debate on mining for sustainable development”, revealing a clear intention that threatens the interests of the Salvadoran people.
Even more worrisome is recent legislation creating the General Directorate of Energy, Hydrocarbons and Mines, approved by the Legislative Assembly on October 26 of this year with the objective of authorizing, regulating and supervising the operations of mining activities. The new law does not distinguish between metallic and non-metallic mining but refers only to mineral mining and establishes the promotion of mineral mining as a "duty of the State". It assigns the new Directorate with responsibility for establishing, maintaining and promoting cooperative relations with foreign and multilateral institutions or organizations "linked to the mining sector”; promoting the exploration of special areas where deposits with confirmed economic potential are located; and coordinating with the Ministry of the Environment in the assessment of mining and quarry exploration proposals.
The new law mentions only once the existing Law of Prohibition of Metallic Mining, stating that “the regulations, instructions, resolutions, standards, agreements and other general provisions […] will remain in force […] while they are not expressly repealed or modified”. This ambiguity clearly opens the door to renewed debate on metallic mining in El Salvador and threatens the guarantee of rights achieved with the ban of this industry in 2017.
The central issue in the debate on metallic mining in El Salvador has always been water, with the slogan "Yes to life, no to mining." It is widely recognized that El Salvador suffers from a water crisis of enormous proportions in terms of quantity, quality and access. According to experts, rivers are drying up, the water levels of the nation's most strategic aquifers are falling more than one meter per year, more than 90% of lakes and rivers are polluted and communities without access to this vital liquid, the source of all life, are taking to the streets.
Metal mining is a threat to water due to enormous consumption and contamination with toxic materials, such as cyanide (a chemical that can kill a human being in quantities less than a grain of rice), mercury, sulfuric acid, hydrochloric acid, lead, arsenic, cadmium, magnesium and other substances. According to an Oxfam America study, Dirty Metals, "When it comes to toxic emissions, metal mining is one of the leading industries."
Given this reality, broad based social coalitions, together with the Catholic Church, Protestant churches, the Office of the Attorney for the Defense of Human Rights, affected communities, environmental organizations, academic institutions, organizations of indigenous peoples and women and other important sectors of the population supported a bill presented on February 6, 2017 to ban metallic mining in the country. A survey conducted in 2015 by the Central American University, UCA, showed that 79.5% of participants considered El Salvador to be an inappropriate country for mining metals. In the same survey, 76% of those surveyed were opposed to the opening of mining projects in their municipalities; 77% believed that the Salvadoran State should definitively ban metallic mining in the country and, despite the critical situation of unemployment in the surveyed communities, 86% indicated that they had no interest in working in a mine.
Mining companies, to win hearts and minds, speak of new technologies for metallic mining more in harmony with the environment, using terms like "green mining," "modern mining," and "responsible mining." But the experience with metallic mining in Central America, and globally, teaches us that there is nothing new under the sun. Central American mines use more than a million liters of water daily. The Marlin mine in San Miguel Ixtlahuacán in Guatemala, considered by the World Bank as the most modern mine in Central America, used more than six million liters of water daily, the equivalent usage of a peasant family over a period of 30 years. A nickel mine on the shores of Lake Izabal in the same country uses thirteen times the amount of water required for the nearby town of El Estor daily. According to the residents of Valle de Syria in Honduras, the San Martín mine, in nine years of operations, dried up 19 of the 23 original rivers in the area. And in El Salvador, the Canadian mining company, Pacific Rim, in the exploration phase alone of its El Dorado project in San Isidro, Cabañas, dried up more than 20 historical community water holes.
Instead of acknowledging the depth of the water crisis and seeking lasting solutions, such as the approval of a General Water Law to assure good governance and a constitutional reform that recognizes water as a basic human right, the current administration continues to prioritize the interests of large companies over the interests of poor communities, approving projects that threaten sites for the recharging of strategic aquifers while water defenders in localities like Valle de Ángel in Apopa, the La Labor community in Ahuachapán and many others are accused of terrorism, persecuted and imprisoned.
Faced with all these worrisome realities, we are once again called to resist the advance of policies and practices, rejected in the past, that endanger the viability of our nation and the very life of our citizens.
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* ANDRES MCKINLEY: Has more than 50 years of experience working for sustainable development in Africa and El Salvador. He has a Masters degree in Health from the University of Florida, US and he currently works for the Central American University in El Salvador.
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Translated from : https://elfaro.net/es/202112/columnas/25886/%C2%BFEstamos-frente-al-silencioso-regreso-de-la-miner%C3%ADa-met%C3%A1lica-en-El-Salvador.htm
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Category: Mining prohibition El Salvador
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Published: Tuesday, 29 June 2021 11:09
CLICK THE PHOTO TO DOWNLOAD REPORT IN SPANISHOn the fourth anniversary of the historic ban on metal mining in El Salvador, the National Roundtable Against metallic mining of El Salvador released a report that documents the events and strategies that led to the historic ban on metal mining in El Salvador.
Seen from the perspective of the activists who let the local struggle against mining, the document starts with a historical background of mining companies in El Salvador, the resistance against a series of mining projects that began operating unannounced in communities in the early 2000s, the resistance of the communities that led to the acts of violence and assassination of 5 environmentalists in Cabañas and the strategies these communities utilized to forge a robust national and international movement against metal mining in the country.
After learning that metal mining in neighboring countries had caused environmental degradation, the loss of biodiversity and sources of water, and more importantly, damages to human health, organizations in the country sought to build national alliances with universities, NGOs and the church to counter the deceit (jobs and development) that companies were utilizing to sell their projects. The struggle took international dimensions when two companies, Commerce Group and Pacific Rim (later acquired by OceanaGold), decided to sue the government of El Salvador at the International Centre for the Settlement of Investment Disputes ICSID. The support of international organizations helped find technical deficiencies in the arguments of mining companies, and also helped bridge the active participation of members of the MNFM in the presentation of an Amicus Curiae at the ICSID and in numerous international solidarity actions across the world. When the struggle took a violent turn, it was international organizations who helped members of la mesa navigate the international human rights system and helped to echo the calls for justice to the international public opinion.
Despite of the success of the campaign and the fact that the mining prohibition has been in force for the last four years, La Mesa affirms that there has been no commitment on the part of the Salvadoran State to implement the law. In particular, the report points to a government´s debt with communities affected by mining: they still face the impacts of acid drainage in abandoned mines, there has not been an effort to provide incentives for artisanal miners to convert to more sustainable occupations, reparations for families that were victims of mining violence have not been issued, no efforts have been made to conduct environmental remediation to 15 abandoned mines classified as “environmental passives”, and no steps have been taken to protect local watersheds from cross border mining projects.
The report closes demanding that the current government of Nayib Bukele guarantee that the mining prohibition will not be reversed and that the Ministry of the Environment and Natural Resources (MARN), and the Ministry of Economy (MINEC) develop regulations to implement the decision of the Salvadoran people not to allow the metal mining industry in the country.
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Category: Water Crisis El Salvador
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Published: Tuesday, 15 June 2021 15:53
FIDES
Salvadoran Cardinal Gregorio Rosa Chávez, in his usual Sunday press conference, said he hopes that the initiative of the water law that the government will present contains the progress made in the proposal supported and elaborated by the Catholic Church and environmental organizations.
"We hope that it will not remain in the garbage, because it is something highly developed, so that people have water as a fundamental human right", underlined the Cardinal.
In recent days, Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele announced that the issue of water will be discussed in the Legislative Assembly and spoke of a particular project.
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Category: Mining and Human Rights
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Published: Saturday, 12 June 2021 13:55
SPRING
Samantha Ponting
“I was born and lived more than half my life in Lepanto, the location of the Lepanto Consolidated mine,” said Chandu Claver, an Indigenous land defender, in a recorded presentation to attendees of the April 19 virtual launch of the International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines – Toronto chapter (ICHRP-Toronto).
According to Claver, the Filipino mining company Lepanto Consolidated Mining Corporation has worked closely with the Canadian company Ivanhoe Mines Ltd. over the past 20 years— and the environmental impact of their operations have been devastating.
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