Puentes is a professor of environmental sciences and technologies at Saint Thomas University in Bogotá. “In addition, it is a buffer zone for floods, as it stores the overflow and rainwater during the winter season, which is released through pipes.” “Llanito is a reservoir without a flowing current which depends on the Sogamoso River to renew its water and redistribute waste products,” he says. Jairo Puentes, a chemical engineer and oil specialist, says the wetlands act as natural water filters, regulating local temperatures and providing habitat for animal species, which, in turn, help keep the ecosystem in balance. As he disembarks, after more than an hour’s journey through the murky waters of the wetlands, he says that sedimentation and pollution are destroying this strategic ecosystem. With the same emotion, Chacón points out the great variety of birds soaring across the skies of the Llanito wetlands, located in the Colombian city of Barrancabermeja.īut Chacón’s enthusiasm fades as he approaches the shore. “They” are two small white-faced capuchin monkeys ( Cebus capucinus) moving between the tops of two bushes. Cristo Carrascal, his traveling companion, quickly turns off the engine while Chacón stands up and begins to guide the boat toward the shore with a long wooden pole. Suddenly he raises his right hand and waves it up and down. The 58-year-old fisherman knows for sure that at some point along the way they will appear. This story is a journalistic collaboration between Semana Sostenible of Colombia and Mongabay Latam.Įugenio Chacón scans the colorful branches of the trees with his strong, sharp gaze. State oil company Ecopetrol now plans to carry out fracking in a series of pilot projects here, but many communities are skeptical that it will be done responsibly.Fishermen say the century of oil extraction here has failed to yield the promised social and economic dividends, while compromising local water resources.The wetlands around the Colombian city of Barrancabermeja have for a long time been battered by pollution, including from the region’s oil industry.
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