Colombia Resident Says Foreign-Operated Coal Mine a Health Risk

Luz Angela Urina said the Cerrejon coal mine in the Colombian province of La Guajira is damaging her family's health and wants to see it closed for the well-being of her community.  

Urina told Semanario Voz the owners and operators of the coal mine are uninterested in the health of the community. 

“We see that they come and extract here and there but without thinking of us, they are taking money out of our territories while our families are dying as a result of pollution,” said Urina.

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Indigenous Children Die of Malnutrition in Colombia

La Guajiara is rich in resources but is one of Colombia's poorest provinces and has been making the news for all. Recently, community leaders from the Wayuu indigenous community traveled o Bogota to shed light on the crisis of malnutrition and to protest the deaths of children in their community. 

Since coal mining began in 1985 in La Guajira until 2009, 444.9 millions of tons of coal have been exported, generating US$18,2 billion in earnings. Of that the Colombian state only received US$1.4 billion.

Cerrejon is a joint venture between Australia-based BHP Billiton Ltd , London- and Johannesburg-based Anglo American Plc and Swiss-based Glencore Xstrata and is operating under a concession that runs until 2033.

On its website Cerrejon boasts about their “responsible mining” practices and claims to be committed to the development of La Guajira. 

Urina says that when she approached the company for help regarding her son's compromised help, they were of no use. 

“We spoke to them but they never listed to us. They say there isn't any pollution but there is,” said Urina.

“Cerrejon came here offering my elders: health, work, and potable water, but so far we have no water. We lived off the water from the Rancheria river and now we cannot access the river, because Cerrejon pollutes the water, we cannot grow because now the areas surrounding Cerrejon are private,” she tells Voz magazine. 

Doctors have told her that by living next to the mine her son is smoking the equivalent of ten cigarettes a day. 

The Center for the Studies of Carbon backs these claims, they say mining activities have led to the contamination of the air near the mine.

Urina says she sometimes went without food in order to afford travel and medical treatment for her son. 

She was eventually forced to seek a judicial order in September 2015 to get care for her son.

The ruling ordered Colombian authorities to take step to address the pollution created by “open pit mining activity deployed by Cerrejon Limited” but to date no steps have been taken.