Black tide
Mira, 10.000 barrels (OTA)
Attempt
“The new attack against the pipeline in Tumaco is the worst in terms of social and environmental impacts in recent years”.
“410,000 gallons of crude oil were spilled into water sources causing serious damage to ecosystems and leaving 160,000 people without drinking water”
The guerrilla attack against the Oleoducto Transandino (OTA), in the rural area of Tumaco on June 22, 2015, caused the spill of 10 thousand barrels of crude oil into the Pinde and Pianulpí streams, from there it reached the Guisa River, ending in the Mira, a tributary that supplies water to Tumaco and surrounding areas until arrive the Pacific Ocean. 81 kilometers of water sources were affected. In addition to harming the fauna and flora of the area, 110,000 inhabitants of the urban area and 35,000 of the rural sector suffered the cut-off of drinking water. Tumaco was out of water for 20 days.
I remember that when I heard about this, as in previous attacks against oil pipelines, I felt indignation, disappointment and helplessness, mainly due to the enormous damage to nature and the communities in the area. However, on this occasion, the sum of my feelings of sadness caused a desire to appropriate the facts and work on the matter. This idea was in my head for years.
Oil spills due to attacks on oil infrastructure are one of many problems that afflict my country. According to the report “VERDAD Y AFECTACIONES a la infraestructura petrolera en Colombia en el marco del conflicto armado”, presented in July 2020 by Fundación Ideas para la Paz, today we know that between 1986 and 2016 (during 30 years), there were 3,659 attacks on the country's oil infrastructure, with explosives, firearms, burning of assets, and others, and that these armed actions caused 4,455 damages derived from the infrastructure and goods of the industry, the environment and / or civilians or people.
The triptych illustrates the particular attack against the Transandino oil pipeline that occurred in 2015, and is also the starting point for a much larger project that aims to delve into this problem. It is necessary to highlight the damage to nature that derives from these events, mainly the contamination generated by the release of crude oil into the environment, which immediately affects aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems.
A spill represents an imminent danger to life. The fauna that comes into contact with the oil dies from ingesting the oi’s toxic compounds, from suffocation, blindness or even from paralysis. The land is degraded, the soil contaminated, and the threat of fire is immediate. In the long term, these damages are evidenced in the reproductive and feeding systems of the ecosystem. Oil produces carcinogenic consequences in the food chain that ultimately affect human health.
In addition to the environmental impact, there are social difficulties like the rupture of the relationship of the communities with their environment, psychological alterations in affected people, threats to life and health, inconveniences around the collection and use of drinking water, food shortage, decrease in the quality of life, economic crisis, limitation of transportation, among others.
Black Gold is a call for reflection on the problems caused by the attacks on the oil infrastructure, a way of making them visible, not with documentary images of war, but from other communication dynamics, in a subtle and poetic way.
It is an invitation to society to inform itself about what is happening when this kind of attack occurs, what the consequences are and how to prevent the repetition of these actions. It is born from a real interest, a commitment to the environment and communities impacted so that damage does not become custom.
Let's appropriate our territory.
Through education, surveillance and prevention we can raise awareness. As Colombians we must preserve our sacred and biodiverse land, keeping it free from these acts that cause so much damage to us as a nation.