Ecuador's 'Major' Oil Spill Cause Devastating Effects in River and Protected Amazon Area

A damaged pipeline in Ecuador's Amazon area resulted in a devastating oil spill. According to the statement released by the business that controls the pipeline, an estimated of 6,300 barrels leaked into the environmental reserve.

Since the accident on Friday, when heavy rains forced a rock to fall on the pipeline in hilly terrain, the firm OCP claimed it has "collected and reinjected 5,300 barrels of petroleum into the system." They have collected oil accounted for 84 percent of the quantity that leaked, or around 6,300 barrels.

The oil was gathered in enormous basins that were used as a last resort in the event of a spill. In a statement, OCP president Jorge Vugdelija claimed the business was collecting traces of crude with personnel and machinery.

"We will not scrimp on resources to comply with the cleaning, remediation, or compensation," he stressed in a report in Phys.org. The leak has impacted around 21,000 square meters of the Cayambe-Coca natural reserve.

Related Article: Scientists to Train Tiny Robots to Suck Oil Spills and Remove Toxins From Drinking Water

Crude Oil Pouring Out

(Photo : Photo by CRISTINA VEGA RHOR/AFP via Getty Images)
Aerial view showing the oil spill at the Coca river in Puerto Maderos village, Sucumbios province, Ecuador on February 1, 2022. - An oil spill in eastern Ecuador has reached a nature reserve and polluted a river that supplies water to indigenous communities, according to the country's environmental ministry.

Crude poured into the Coca River, one of the largest in Ecuador's Amazon region and a water source for many riverside villages, including indigenous people.

"We demand to know what will be the procedure of bringing water and food to the communities. It is apparent that the river water cannot be utilized or consumed," the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of the Ecuadorian Amazon wrote on Twitter. 

Benjamin Landazuri, 57, a construction worker, claimed he had lost some poultry that drank from a creek near his home. He stated there was a powerful stench of oil when he got home from work on Friday, giving him a headache.

Landazuri obtained water samples to test for contamination and stated that he would seek compensation from OCP if the tests were positive.

Cayambe-Coca is a 4,000-square-kilometer (1,544-square-mile) mountain range and rainforest in the Amazon basin, with elevations ranging from 600 to 5,790 meters (1,970 to 19,000 feet).

Due to recent severe rainfall, landslides and rock falls have occurred in the Piedra Fina region, where the pipeline is located.

The 485-kilometer pipeline connects four provinces and transports 160,000 barrels of oil per day from rainforest wells to the Pacific coast in the west. As soon as a large rock struck the pipe, the oil streamed out.

Oil Spill Affected Ecosystem

A mudslide in the exact location in 2020 destroyed pipelines, spilling 15,000 barrels of oil into three Amazon basin drivers damaging many villages.

Ecuador's most important export is crude oil. The nation extracted 494,000 barrels per day between January and November 2021.

According to Al Jazeera, the oil disaster is the second in two weeks to wreak havoc on South American ecosystems, following the discharge of roughly 12,000 barrels of petroleum off the coast of Peru on January 15.

Also Read: Environmental Agency Allegedly Told Staff to Ignore Reports on Low-Impact Pollution Due to Budgetary Reasons

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