Just Water Allocation in the Dulcepamba Watershed
Current Reflections - Flooded again...
Late Monday night, February 25, 2018 heavy rains struck the Dulcepamba Watershed. Both the Dulcepamba River and surrounding tributaries grew and overflowed, gravely affecting the community of San Pablo de Amalí and the parish of San Jose del Tambo 8km farther downhill.
San Pablo de Amalí was particularly affected because the hydroelectric company, Hidrotambo S.A., diverted the Dulcepamba River 120 meters closer to the town in order to build their intake facility in 2013. The River was never returned to its original channel, as was promised. Instead, the company dynamited the hillside, destabilizing the earth for miles around and designed their project to send excess water directly towards the community (instead of downstream).
San Pablo de Amalí community members demanded protection from repeated flooding caused by hydroelectric company, Hidrotambo S.A. in a Protective Action, which was denied in the county court 4 days before they were flooded again...
San Pablo de Amalí community members waiting for a helicopter to evacuate them two days after the flood.
More than 2 weeks after disaster struck, several community members in the lower part of the community obtained road access. As of March 14, 2018, 12 families are still stuck between two damaged/washed-out bridges, although they can go and come by foot.
On the left, Gustavo Sanchez's house and on the right, Lorena Mestanza's house-- both destroyed in the flood. (2 other houses in San Pablo and 7 in San José del Tambo were also destroyed)
Despite repeated complaints and legal actions presented by the community demanding adequate protection, this is the 3rd time in 5 rainy seasons that the diverted river has flooded large portions of the community.
For 10 days, San Pablo de Amalí was completely isolated, stuck between the flooding river, washed-out bridges, and enormous landslides. About 40 community members were evacuated by helicopter, but the majority remained. Without access to nearby towns that have markets and basic services, the community was left with no access to potable water, food, or medicine.
The local government promised to send food rations, but nothing ever arrived, and broken promises are all too common here.
For that reason, we reached out to our family and friends to ask for help in a moment of desperation.
We were met by an overwhelming response, and raised enough funds within 24 hours to purchase food and basic essentials for the community's 66 stranded families to last them 1-2 weeks.
To this day, the only support in the form of food and basic essentials that the community has received is from our dear friends and family in the United States.
We made a short video to inform the donors about the situation, and thank them for their generous support:
We have reached out to the media, and among others, two major in-depth, investigative TV shows, including Ecuador’s version of 60 Minutes (called 360) are coming to cover the whole story.