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Aquitaine, the capital of onion, is one of the seven municipalities of Boyacá that are supplied with water from the Tota lagoon, an ecosystem of great value for the agricultural and tourist sector of the country. Much of its population has lived with the judgment that the water they consume from the lagoon is contaminated with biological and agrochemical waste
(Context: Lake Tota, with excess lead, will not supply water to 7 municipalities)
However, few had heard of a heavy material known to have negative effects on human health: The Lead, which according to a report by the Prosecutor’s Office was found in high doses in the Tota lagoon (above 95 times the tolerance limits).
The news, which was replicated across the country, left many confused. Like Nancy Daza, a resident of Aquitaine, because she does not know what lead is and what effects it has on her health, and because she thought that she would not be able to use the water that comes out of her tap again.
“I have always consumed bottled water to prepare juices and coffee, because we know that water from Aquitaine It is not of quality, but to cook food I do use the key. That is why, upon hearing the news, my mother asked me: ‘What will lead be? Is that why there are so many people in town with cancer?‘”, He told EL TIEMPO on a tour of this municipality.
In accordance with World Health Organization, Lead is a toxic metal that accumulates in the body and affects the nervous, hematological, gastrointestinal, cardiovascular and renal systems. “Children are more vulnerable to the neurotoxic effects of lead; a relatively low level of exposure can cause serious neurological damage, and in some cases irreversible ”, states the WHO.(Read: The areas of Bogotá and Colombia where there are difficulties due to rains)
The Tota lagoon is surrounded by onion, potato and pea crops, there are also livestock and tourist infrastructure that is deteriorating it, say environmental authorities.
Cesar Melgarejo. TIME
Faced with this serious finding, the Attorney General acted. At the head of the Attorney 32 Judicial I Agrarian and Environmental of Boyacá, Alicia López Alfonso, and the Delegate Attorney for Environmental and Agrarian Affairs, Diego Trujillo Marín, filed a tutela action (which has already been admitted) so that all environmental authorities establish where the contamination comes from and take measures to stop it.
And while they do so, the control entity also requested to prevent both Aquitaine such as Sogamoso, Tota, Cuítiva, Firavitoba, Iza and Nobsa continue to consume this water until the origin of this pollutant is known, and alternatives for the consumption of quality water are offered.
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But this ‘bomb’ news, as cataloged Herman Amaya, director of the Regional Autonomous Corporation of Boyacá (Corpoboyacá), has its fair proportions, according to Amaya.
“I cannot infer that a 2 billion cubic meter body of water has lead from just two samples. Also, these samples were made around an industry fish farm. The hypothesis is simple, there are bars there, and in a process of erosion, the solder releases lead. At that point we took measures and it was closed for prevention in order to clarify what is happening ”, Amaya said in a conversation with this newspaper.
-So there is no excess lead as the Prosecutor’s Office says?
What I mean is that lpeople are not consuming lead, because the municipalities make measurements of heavy metals and have not found. However, at some points there is contamination of this toxic metal and in excess, so we go out to find what are the discharges that are taking lead to the lake, which is my task ”.
Amaya assures that in order to have complete information on this body of water, 24 samples will be made at different points of the lagoon. “We have already done some with the Institute of Hydrology, Meteorology and Environmental Studies and the Ministry of the Environment, we hope that the first results will come out today or tomorrow.” (Recommended: ‘Ecopetrol is not taking action against recurring oil spills’)
A farmer fumigates an onion crop. These chemicals are known to be reaching the Tota lagoon.
Cesar Melgarejo. TIME
Where does it come from?
While César Villamizar, a farmer from Aquitaine, collects the onion and prepares it to be sent to the Corabastos in Bogotá, says that pollution has always been discussed, but nobody does anything about it.
“The authorities have never tried to decontaminate the lake and determine where the contamination is coming from. Now, that they say that it has lead is serious, because all the towns depend on that lagoon, ”says Villamizar.
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The Boyacá judicial attorney has the hypothesis that this lead comes from the excessive and irregular use of chicken manure that is used as fertilizer in crops, especially onions; the mismanagement of human excrement; trout farming and the uncontrollable use of pesticides and agrochemicals. These four elements become a polluting cocktail that overloads this important aquifer with lead.
According to Trujillo, the news should not focus on the fact that the Prosecutor’s Office only carried out two samples, because activities that degrade the lagoon are all around it.
Today, it is even unknown what pollutants that come from agrochemicals reach the lake. “As Corpoboyacá, I must identify the vectors that the body of water has, but I have an enormous institutional weakness, because that can cost the corporation 7,000 million pesos and my budget is 15,0000,” says Amaya.
A fundamental problem
In effect, there is no environmental authority that denies the tensions that have existed in the area for years and have not been able to stop.
For example, the uncontrolled use of the land, deforestation in the basin, where the round of the lake is not respected, the fish farms with levels of contamination, the dumping of human waste, especially from the municipality of Aquitaine and the hotels, which arrive directly to the lagoon. “Which clearly increases the levels of nitrogen and phosphorus in the lake, which deteriorate the ecosystem,” says the director of Corpoboyacá.
The absurdity, for the Attorney General’s Office, is that no environmental authorities have done anything to prevent this degradation. “The guild of farmers and onion growers it is so strong that they believe they have a right to dispose of the territory without any control. While Corpoboyacá, apparently, does not have the strength to do something, having normality in its favor, ”added Trujillo.
In his defense, Amaya says that it is not so easy to sanction a legal activity that has been in the region for more than 70 years, such as onion production, where even large producers have reached the mayor’s office. “The issue is that it is very easy to say, but how are you going to tell a peasant that he has to leave the strip, that has enormous social complexity. Besides, I don’t have the legal tools to do it, ”he explains.
What if they come up with alternatives?
“But how to do that if the corporation officials were threatened with death when the follow-up days were established. This is an extremely complex guild. The only way to do something about the lagoon is to declare it as a special management area. I am going to forward the request to the Ministry of the Environment, which declares the round of the lagoon a special agroecological zone ”.
While each sector and environmental entity points out responsible, and mentions their ties, the Attorney General insists that it is necessary to integrate the Ministry of Agriculture, the National Land Agency, the Ministry of Tourism and all national and departmental environmental entities to advance in an order that protects a key ecosystem for the food sustainability of the country and for ecotourism.
TATIANA ROJAS HERNÁNDEZ
ENVIRONMENTAL DRAFTING
[email protected]
