Ecuador’s Amazon residents seething after new oil spill

By Stabroek News On In Business |
The oil spill was caused by the rupture of a pipeline belonging to OCP in a protected Amazon area [Ecuador’s Ministry of Environment via AFP]
The oil spill was caused by the rupture of a pipeline belonging to OCP in a protected Amazon area [Ecuador’s Ministry of Environment via AFP]

There is oil in the water, on the rocks and in the sand where children normally play on the banks of the Coca River in Ecuador.

Residents of Puerto Madero made no effort to hide their anger at the latest crude spill to hit the Ecuadorian Amazon.

“This damage is not for a month, two months… it will be 20 years” before things return to normal,” said Bolivia Buenano, a merchant from the area some 120km (75 miles) from where the spill occurred.