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Andes Amazon Water
An Ecuador-Brazil film
Directed by Marcio Isensee e Sá
Between the Andes and the Amazon Rainforest, takes place one of the most important
hydrologic cycles that produce one fifth of the planet’s fresh water:
Masses of moist air produced in the Amazon are driven to the Andes,
where they cool and reach up its slopes to return as rain.
This natural process implies that any environmental alteration that affects either of these regions
will, inevitably, affect the other and its inhabitants, its productive systems,
cultural practices and affect the survival of Man on the planet as well.
The presence of the Andes Mountain Range in Ecuador
is a determining factor to understand what goes on in the Amazon region.
The mountain range determines rainfall patterns in the Eastern Range,
and all the air masses that arrive right
from Brazil’s lower Amazon for the most part, and from Peru,
cause large amounts of rainfall
when they eventually contact the equatorial Andes on the Eastern Range.
This is the explanation for the large volume of water that we witness in the lower regions,
such as in Puyo, Tena and Misahualli
rivers that begin in Antisana, in Cotopaxi
and are born in several complex humid zones such as Llanganates
that find their way into the lower zones to form our major rivers
such as the Napo, Aguarico, Puyo, Pastaza and Zamora River, in the lowest portion.
The páramo is a high montane ecosystem
located above the Andean timberline up to where vegetation exists and below the permanent snowline.
Due to its high storage potential and hydric regulation,
these are strategic ecosystems that are responsible to giving birth to all major rivers.
Water sponges or “cushions” are plants that capture any amount of water.
When large numbers of cattle are present in the region, they become compact
and harden the soil into a road-like surface.
And how does that happen? When it rains, water does not seep in and tends to run off.
It doesn’t remain like it does here where we have plenty of water within.
We do not have many cattle in this sector,
but there are sectors with many cattle heads where the soil is already compacted.
It rained and then rained again, water flowed in streams, however, two days later everything was dry again.
Climbing from central Amazon to Ecuador, the Llanganates Mountain Range offers its welcome into the Andes;
a place where laden clouds form a number of creeks that bring life to Ana Tenório and Mulatos rivers,
main basins of the Llanganates National Park.
Throughout its course, the water travels through páramos and overcast forests
until it reaches the tropical wet forests of the Amazon, now called Napo River.
The river is called Ana Tenório,
later on it joins Langoa River and will be known as Mulatos River.
Here we see that water flows down from all slopes.
There’s more than enough water here.
Up there, where the river is born,
there once lived a family,
the wife’s name was Ana, and I think her husband name was Tonho,
That is why they called the river Ana Tenório.
In the Amazonian region, the rivers that come from as far as the Andes
are those with the greatest water flow and the ones most used by the people.
A direct connection then can be seen between what occurs in the higher portions of the Andes and what will happen in the Andean Amazon.
Everything that’s done to the waters high up will benefit or harm the waters below.
There is no deforestation control along river banks
aside from those that increase the borders of agricultural,
livestock breeding, oil and mining activities.
Most of the water that reaches here lies within protected areas.
It is in Llanganates, Cayambe Coca National Park, Sumaco National Park
however, there is no real protection in those basins.
The pressure being put on páramos is increasingly stronger.
There are less and less páramos available, as they are being transformed into pasture lands and agriculture zones.
In some cases, there are also potential mining exploitations in many páramos zones.
This causes this ecosystem, which lies mostly in Ecuador,
to be very sensitive, which can mean many problems for the future.
The Napo River enters the story which we will get to know better through the Omagua people.
The items found in the Napo culture
speak of the flourishing of an important civilization
that has been developing since the year 900 AD up to the year 1600.
It is a river culture
living on the banks of Napo River and its main tributaries.
The Omagua arrived from Brazil,
navigating the major rivers until they reached the river heads up to Suno River.
They are skilled men of the rivers, as they travel throughout their length and river heads,
making good use of the vast resources the forest has to offer.
We are looking at a highly civilized people, a society that also has very deep spiritual concepts.
They sought what they termed a “land with no evil” which always lies to the West,
therefore these Amazonian societies tended to forge upwards, following the Napo River.
Their ceramics clearly show their connection with the water, with waterholes,
fish and the animals on the riverbanks which were very important in their culture, such as the alligator and the turtle.
In their culture, these animals are continuously transforming or moving between different realms.
After the Omaguas came the Spanish, the conquerors.
They came from above; the entire occupation of the Amazon took place from above.
The naporunas were a mixture of people, each with their own dialect,
and the Napo River is the place where all these cultures we’ve mentioned come together as one:
the present-day naporuna.
In the old days, our ancestors, both women and men,
shape shifted into anacondas to travel the rivers and appear just about anywhere.
My mother says all this was true,
that they changed into leopards, anacondas and dolphins.
We all settled throughout the entire Archidona and Napo zones up to Nuevo Rocafuerte, on the border with Peru,
but only along the banks of the Napo River.
Most of the people belong to the evangelical church.
Before religions came, our gods were the Sun, the Moon, major trees, lakes and the anaconda.
In those days, my ancestors used to say that when they saw a strong whirlpool, that this was a sign of the presence of an anaconda.
Napo River is one of the fundamental elements of the naporuna’s cosmological vision.
For them, Creation was achieved through the river,
and there is a very interesting myth called “the tree of the fish”,
that was once felled and became the Napo River.
In the old days, the Napo River was much more abundant, but now it has changed a great deal.
The organization of its communities has also changed, like the river.
In those days, there was plenty of hunting and fishing
and my father knew all of this, about fishing and the gold that were to be found in Napo River.
Way back, before the 70’s, everything here was uncertain,
for we lacked any means of communication, we had none at all.
We only had TAO flights that reached an airstrip built by missionaries.
This community never had piped water before.
As from the 70’s, studies were made and water networks were installed.
Before that, everyone fetched their water from the river.
They gave us piped water only after 15 or 20 years with the aid of the municipality.
This has made things better, but we are still lacking safe water.
Before we used to see many fish, catfish, and people caught them by the hundreds.
All of it to feed ourselves.
Now hunting and fishing is almost non-existent.
Now people work tilling the land for cocoa and corn.
When we were little children, we bathed peacefully in the river, and there was no harm to be feared,
we did not feel what we today feel on our bodies.
It was a cleaner Napo River, and we even used to drink this water.
We took the water and prepared chicha,
which we drank without any fear, but it is not so today.
To obtain water, people used to go to the little streams,
where they dug water holes by its banks to collect the pure water that surfaced.
After we received training, we were given a water tank each.
We were trained in how to install them and carry out maintenance.
With this equipment we were given, it has helped a lot in our cooking and for drinking water.
And since sometimes we do not have any water, we can use it for washing.
Our companions get their water directly from the Napo for drinking, bathing and everything else.
And if you saw what takes place here, right from our province,
you’d see that it is not well planned, that the sewage is sent straight into the river.
All the dirt coming from the city goes directly into the water.
For me, the main problem is with the water.
Of the 37 oil rigs located in Ecuador, eight of them are located in the Orellana province.
La Joya de los Sachas is one of the cities which is most exposed to that activity
since here the presence of oil is quite obvious due to the oil ducts and wells located close to inhabited areas.
They came here to dump water contaminated with chemicals and oil residue.
So many people bathe downriver, so many people that take their water from the river.
How can we allow this to continue?
- This water was taken from here, from what they’ve dumped here... - Water with chemicals.
- This is the water they use to wash their... - Wells.
- Water with chemicals... - This is what they came here to dump.
Unfortunately, laws have been very frail, very permissive towards certain extractivism activities.
And all these activities, especially here in the oil extraction zone,
have no real control on the part of the regulating agency, which is the Ministry of the Environment.
There have been many ecological disasters in Napo River,
but the greatest catastrophe was the one with Texaco that is still underway.
Texaco’s oil spill was unbelievable,
as it dumped everything into the rivers.
The oil company theme in our community
has not made things better as it not only damaged the environment with contamination,
as it brought on a new lifestyle into the lives of our companions.
Environmental damages have not been corrected.
They remain there. People are still being affected
by the damage caused by oil and different chemical agents.
It’s tough.
The most common sicknesses here are stomach problems, breathing and skin problems.
Many families fetch their water from the river,
from this Guamayaco River that surrounds the city
and that carries up to 400 times the level of contaminants from cancer causing heavy metals,
unsuitable even for animals.
Where oil extraction activities occur, in any of its phases,
the first thing to happen is the disintegration of a community’s organizational core.
Instead of overcoming it, we became part of the oil theme
dividing our communities.
Communities are first divided by money,
because sometimes an oil company takes hold of a community president and says: “you must do this, say such and such”,
but most of the community does not agree, so they buy the president and there you have your division.
Many communities have this division problem.
This is what one sees in Edén,
where we had counted 80% of *** mothers.
So there, you see the damages caused when oil companies come in.
The Napo River continues in Peru and when it joins Marañón River, it becomes the great Amazon River.
Rivers must be seen as living organisms.
Many people do not understand it or think that we are being metaphysical, half crazy or hippie-like,
but the thing is that the river is actually a living organism with its own dynamics and we must respect it and understand it.
If we have no pure water, we have no health.
In the end, everything comes back to rivers.
Everything we do, each and every activity we are involved with connects to rivers in the end.
We always regard the river as a source of replenishing water,
but we must begin to see it as an ecosystem, as a living being.
Rivers are the arteries of the planet,
from whence life circulates and life itself depends.
Translation: Robert Rajabally Id studio