Peruvian fishers on the contminated shore at Pasamayo. Photo: Leslie Moreno Custodio/Diálogo Chino.
By Alejandra García – Sept 10, 2024
The panorama of large portions of the Peruvian coastline is desolate. What used to be rich fishing regions and the livelihood of dozens of indigenous communities in the country, is today a scene of death since the spill of more than 11,000 barrels of oil at the maritime terminal La Pampilla, belonging to the Spanish oil company Repsol, in 2022.
In January 2022, with the oil spill at the Repsol-owned La Pampilla maritime terminal in Callao province, the hopes of hundreds of fishers went up in smoke. The areas where they fished were the first ones to be affected. They are still awaiting a response from the government and compensation for the damages suffered.
Repsol’s balance sheet of remediation and civil reparation is worse than zero; it is negative. A recent report states that “the social impacts have worsened” after the emergency, while the government of the usurper Dina Boluarte does not have the political will to demand the Spanish corporation alleviate the consequences suffered by the affected and to restore the environment.
“I was forced to forget about fishing. As much as I would like to go back, I cannot,” Miguel Nuñez, a fisherman affected by the Repsol oil spill, told the Peruvian environment-focused magazine Mongabay.
“I don’t want to be a fisherman anymore. We don’t know how to take care of our biodiversity. If I were to go back to my routine, I would be harming society because the sea is still polluted and the species are still poisoned,” he added. In 2014 he had joined the Association of Artisanal Fishermen of Bahia Blanca Beach, with the dream of training younger generations the required skills.
“We thought that Repsol would give us compensation for our losses for not being able to fish and provide us with a food basket, but we did not imagine how long the crisis was actually going to last and how much it was really going to affect us,” he says, recalling that January disaster.
The family food basket they received was exhausted in a week. Some fishermen, relatives and friends of Miguel Nuñez, became sick with worry and their hopes of reaching the end of the emergency began to fade. Nuñez, who moved 15 years ago to Pachacutec, did not return to the sea. The spill was catalogued as “the worst ecological disaster that has occurred in the Lima area in recent times.” To date, official figures from the Peruvian Ministry of the Environment indicate that the oil spilled on the coasts extends over more than seven million square meters of sea. The toxic water has also damaged shores and strips of 24 beaches for a total of almost two million square meters.
A Year After Oil Spill in Peru, Repsol Evades Multi-Billion Dollar Lawsuit
Currently, Repsol’s fines total more than 208 million soles (Peruvian national currency), equivalent to about $56 million but, so far, the company has only paid about $8 million.
Since the incident caused by Repsol’s negligence, the corporation has insisted that an abnormal swell caused by the eruption of Tonga’s submarine volcano broke the connections of the vessel that was unloading the crude oil. However, as the months went by, the company’s statements became inconsistent. The captain of the Italian vessel contracted to unload the crude oil said that the company had not responded to the emergency on time.
Two years later, the corpses of Humboldt penguins, pelicans, waders, and swallows continue to wash up on the shores or can still be seen in the black crude oil-stained waters. In addition, experts are warning about the loss of traces of a species of otter that was already threatened and in danger of local extinction. Pollution was also detected on islands in the area that are protected zones.
Meanwhile, fishing communities and citizens yearn, with little hope, for a sea free of pollution and to return to the activities that were once their economic livelihood on which their families depended, and the corporate polluters of Repsol are yet to be held accountable.
