I live in Colombia and work with the Movimiento Ambientalista Colombiano, an NGO focused on environmental education. We have a program in the north of the country in the Guajira peninsula, specifically in the desert of Alta Guajira. This territory has been inhabited ancestrally by the wayuú indigenous people, who survived the extermination of the Spanish conquest in the sixteenth century. Currently, this community has a population of 417,965 people (Galindo, 2017). This is one of the most vulnerable areas toclimate change in Colombia given the decrease in the frequency of rainfall, the increase in the number of deaths due to child malnutrition and the lack of government presence and action. The scarcity of water and food has led these communities to live in the midst of an economy of survival and many ancestral values that promoted respect and solidarity between them and with the other species that inhabit these ecosystems have been lost. This is one of the areas where illegal sea turtle trafficking is most common in the country and where environmental activists are often the target of illegal armed groups (Archila, 2015).
It is incredibly contradictory that a region rich in gas and with great potential to develop renewable energy projects is living in these conditions. Studies show that for photovoltaic energy, the region has a potential of 5-5.5 kWh m2 and for wind energy the winds are 8 m/s (Vanegas, 2015).
This is one of the regions with the highest degree of desertification in Latin America and is no longer filled with water from the jagüeis, which are wells where rainwater was ancestrally collected. There is a distribution of water through tank trucks that weekly carry the vital fluid to certain communities. Water is only distributed to those who have a political pact with the local government. The equation determined by corruption, water stress and oblivion by the central government has turned this area of the country into a space where the children’s’ lives are slowly and silently diminishing.
In addition to these problems, the migration of the Wayuú people living in Venezuela has complicated the matter further. The social problems of our neighboring nation has made thousands of indigenous people migrate through the desert looking for better opportunities in Colombia, which evidently do not exist. La Guajira is isolated from the rest of the country, with non-reliable public health records. Even so, from the information that is available, indicators for poverty and infant mortality are more than two times the national average (Bula, 2017).
The work of the NGO, to which I belong, has focused on food security and environmental pedagogy focused on children. We have developed vegetable gardens where they can grow the food that their ancestors consumed and with the support of the National Army we have been able to bring some relief to the lack of water. Visiting this region of Colombia is very much like taking a trip to the future, a future world with irresponsible consumption habits.
It is necessary to design a public policy that integrates the Ministries of Environment and Health, in order to devise strategies for mitigation and adaptation to climate change in this region of Colombia.
References
Archila, Mauricio y Martha Cecilia García. (2015) Violencia y memoria indígena en Cauca y La Guajira. Memoria y Sociedad 19(38), 26-42.
Bula Romero, Galarza, K. (2016) Mortalidad materna en la gestante Wayúu de Uribia, Departamento de la Guajira, Colombia. Estudio descriptivo año 2016. Enfermería cuidados humanizados 6(1), 46-53.
Galindo Montero, A.; Pérez Montiel, J.; Rojano Alvarado, R. (2017). Medidas de adaptación al cambio climático en una comunidad indígena del norte de Colombia. Rev. U.D.C.A Act. & Div. Cient. 20(1),187-197.
M. Vanegas, E. Villicaña, L. Arrieta. (2015) “Quantification and characterization of solar radiation at the department of La Guajira-Colombia by calculating atmospheric transmissivity”, Prospect, 13(2), 54-63.