El Quimbo is a hydroelectric power plant in the southern Colombian province of Huila and the second-largest facility of its kind in South America. It consists of a 151-metre high and 632 meters long concrete-faced rock fill dam on the Magdalena River . There is also an auxiliary dam of 66 metres height and 390 metres crest length. The Construction started in 2011. Since the very beginning the project faced major resistance from residents, who were never consulted by the dam builder Emgesa, ( which isa Colombian subsidiary of the Spanish utility Endesa and the Italian utility Enel.). The reservoir created by the dam spans approximately 20,000 acres, an area that used to be fertile and was populated by many small farmers. These lands, before the dam’s construction, were producing coffee and fruit trees and were also used for fishing and cattle ranching . The major impacts are submergence of agricultural land and forest areas, displacement of people (the project will require evicting 467 families) submergence of a bridge over the Yaguilga River and of the church of San José de Belén, the submergence of archaeological sites and of course there will be negative effects on fisheries and terrestrial fauna. The families who were evicted from their lands and resettled on less fertile plots of land to allow the filling of the dam’s reservoir have found few employment opportunities in their new homes, and they're finding it difficult to renew their previous occupations of fishing and agriculture. The dam was also built in a seismic zone, and from the beginning downstream communities have feared that earthquakes could cause dam breakage. Indeed multiple leaks were recently discovered in the dam. Emgesa officials claimed that these leaks are not a serious problem, yet others claim they pose a serious risk, especially considering the dam’s highly seismic location. In February 2015 El Quimbo( which generates 5 percent of the electricity consumed in Colombia) was shut down by a court because the companie failed to remove wood and biomass from the dam before refilling and that failure would harm the environment. President Juan Manuel Santos called on the courts several times to allow the hydroelectric power plant to be back on operation due to the drought caused by the El Niño weather phenomenon, which has lowered river and reservoirs levels On January 2016 a court in Neiva, the capital of Huila, allowed the power plant to be restarted. Thankfully the Costititional Court ruled against that decision and required for the dam to be shut down.

Il controverso progetto El Quimbo in Colombia

El Quimbo è una centrale idroelettrica costruita dalla multinazionale italo-spagnola Enel-Endesa, attraverso Emgesa. Situata nella Provincia di Huila nel Sud della Colombia è il secondo impianto di questo tipo per grandezza in Sud America. È costituita da una diga di 151 metri di altezza e di 632 metri di lunghezza sul fiume Magdalena. Vi è inoltre una diga ausiliaria di altezza 66 metri e lunghezza 390 metri. Tale opera comporterà l’ inondazione di 8.500 ettari di terre agricole. La costruzione è iniziata nel 2011 ed è stata fin dall’inizio al centro di controversie per i suoi gravi impatti ambientali e socio-economici e culturali tra cui :la distruzione di foreste e habitat che ospitano specie protette, la distruzione delle popolazioni ittiche a causa della deviazione del fiume Magdalena, la contaminazione del fiume, l’aumento del rischio sismico, l’inondazione di terre destinate all’allevamento di bestiame e perdita di terre fertili ad alta produttività che metterebbe a rischio la sicurezza alimentare dell’intero Dipartimento di Huila, lo sfollamento di 467 famiglie attualmente residenti nell’area da inondare, la perdita del patrimonio archeologico ( nella zona coinvolta dal progetto sono state identificate 78 aree di interesse archeologico di epoca pre-ispanica), l’inondazione della cappella di San José de Belén dichiarata patrimonio culturale del Dipartimento di Huila. Le famiglie che sono state sfollate sono state reinsediate in terre meno fertili e hanno trovato poche opportunità di lavoro oltre alla difficoltà nel riprendere le loro attività di pesca e agricoltura. Proprio per far fronte a tali impatti negativi e a febbraio 2015 il Tribunale amministrativo del Huila aveva ordinato la sospensione del riempimento dell’invaso . Pochi mesi dopo però con un decreto di emergenza, il presidente Juan Manuel Santos aveva autorizzato la ripresa dei lavori. La misura però non ha convinto la Corte costituzionale ha ordinato la sospensione delle operazioni di El Quimbo e il rispetto delle misure cautelari decise dal Tribunale del Huila.

Location

Location: https://www.google.it/maps/place/El+Quimbo+Dam/@2.4489785,-75.6082092,12.08z/data=!4m5!3m4!1s0x8e3b2dd5a5db4987:0xef4a3e5d026070c6!8m2!3d2.4578947!4d-75.5709282

Environmental impact

  • Water pollution
  • Biodiversity loss – Ecosystem destruction
  • Depletion of natural resources (fossil and mineral, forest, water, etc)
  • Alteration of landscape aesthetics and built heritage

Ethical/ legal issues

  • Health and well-being
  • Equality before the law and protection by the law (including marginalized and discriminated groups because of colour, race, gender, disability, descent, economic status, age, etc.)
  • Indigenous land, culture and rituals
  • Access to public goods/ resources and products
  • Democratic participation to decision-making on community and national affairs

Information sources & materials

Online books and newspaper, magazine, encyclopedia, or blog articles

https://colombiareports.com/160809-2/

https://www.internationalrivers.org/blogs/436/the-many-faults-of-el-quimbo-dam

http://www.recommon.org/diga-di-el-quimbo-in-colombia-uneccellenza-nefasta/

http://www.qcodemag.it/2017/03/08/la-resistenza-e-vita/

http://cdca.it/archives/12210

Contributor(s)

Elisa Veritti, elisa.veritti@gmail.com, CeVI, Italy

Content repository

TypeFile NameDescriptionSize

jpg		El Quimbo44k