Ecuador: water is not for sale and the páramo is defending itself

The Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (CONAIE) presented the National Assembly with the “Draft Organic Intercultural Law for Integral Water Management”. At the event held in Quito on Tuesday 28 March 2023, Leonidas Iza, president of CONAIE Ecuador, was accompanied by leaders of the regional organisations Ecuarunari, CONFENIAE, CONAICE and some three thousand delegates from the federations belonging to the indigenous movement of the Sierra, Coast and Amazon.

Alberto Ainaguano, president of ECUARUNARI, Lilian Gualavisí, vice-president of ECUARUNARI, Marlon Vargas, president of CONFENIAE and other social leaders, expressed to the president of the National Assembly of Ecuador, Virgilio Saquicela, that “they will continue to work resolutely until the text of the law is approved”.

The proposed law was drafted over the last year by CONAIE, ECUARUNARI, the National Water Resources Forum, through assemblies and provincial workshops held in the three regions of the country and with the participation of the grassroots of the indigenous movement, peasant organisations, water user organisations and representatives of academia.

The text of the bill, which contains a total of 11 titles and 240 articles, begins with the following declaration: “The right to water is based on the undeniable importance of this resource for the existence of life, and therefore its protection and guarantee must be a priority for development”.

The project strengthens the exercise of the right to water, encourages its protection and promotion, and includes a regulation in accordance with international human rights standards and the Ecuadorian reality. It also proposes an institutional framework that guarantees the care of community heritage; the creation of a National Water Fund; the prohibition of activities that could affect the quality, quantity and balance of ecosystems; the recognition of community water protection territories; the prohibition of mining activities in fragile ecosystems and water recharge areas; and the guarantee of community care and management of water and moorlands, among other issues.