MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Nearly 500,000 people affected by oil spill in Ecuador

Petroecuador blamed a landslide due to heavy rains in recent weeks for the spill

Local communities in the Ecuadorean province of Esmeraldas were still protesting Tuesday after a major oil spill last week left some 500,000 residents with no access to drinking water, in addition to other environmental damages.

A rupture in the Trans-Ecuadorian Oil Pipeline System (SOTE) in the El Vergel sector of Quinindé, Esmeraldas province, triggered by a landslide, resulted in an environmental emergency, contaminating rivers, including the Esmeraldas River, and causing water shortages and health issues.

In this scenario, native groups gathered under the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (Conaie), experts, and local officials are demanding transparency from Petroecuador and the government regarding the spill’s scale, estimated at around 200,000 barrels by Esmeraldas Mayor Vicko Villacis, and its impact on biodiversity, public health, fishing, and tourism.

Petroecuador has not officially quantified the spill but is recovering oil and providing water via tankers and navy ships. The government has declared an environmental emergency, and affected communities face severe challenges, including respiratory issues, skin infections, and lack of drinking water, amid calls for better contingency measures and accountability.

The Conaie issued a statement criticizing how the State and Petroecuador have not provided clear and effective answers. “We demand transparent information on the exact amount of crude oil spilled and the real impact on biodiversity and public health,” the organization demanded while insisting it was urgent to guarantee immediate access to drinking water for the affected families and to activate an efficient contingency plan to contain and clean up the crude oil with methodologies appropriate to each ecosystem.

Quinindé Mayor Ronald Moreno went Tuesday to the National Assembly (Parliament) to seek answers. “The oil spill was on March 13, today we are March 18, and the concentration of oil in the rivers has not gone down and that is why we demand from Petroecuador a more efficient reaction capacity,” he stressed.

Meanwhile, Esmeraldas City Mayor Vicko Villacis told La Posta that, according to unofficial information, around 200 thousand barrels of oil were spilled. ”We are talking about 500,000 people (affected) because we have a water commonwealth“ that groups several localities, he told Teleamazonas. He also warned of ”unprecedented ecological damage“ and declared an emergency in the area.

Ecuador's Energy and Mines Ministry said on X that a Navy ship arrived in the area with 600,000 liters of water which were being distributed with tanker trucks.

Some 2,000 families are settled on the banks of several rivers and live mainly from fishing. However, Marine biologist Eduardo Rebolledo, from the Catholic University in Esmeraldas, told Ecuavisa that due to the pollution, ”there are no life forms in the water“ of the Caple and Viche rivers, in which ”a mixture of oil emulsified with water flows.”

The state-owned Petroecuador, in charge of the pipeline, is using tanker trucks to recover the oil spilled in the sector of El Vergel, in the town of Quinindé. Petroecuador blamed a landslide due to heavy rains in recent weeks for the spill.

Ecuador exploited in 2024 about 475,000 barrels per day of oil, one of its main export products. That year it sold 73% of production, which generated some US$ 8.647 billion in revenues.