Between January and July 2022, at least six oil spills have occurred in bodies of water in the states of Zulia, Anzoátegui, Falcón and Delta Amacuro, all related to Pvdsa and its subsidiaries.
Graciela Portillo | Radio Fe y Alegría News
In the Santa Fe Las Playas community, located in the Ricaurte parish of the Mara municipality (Zulia state), an oil spill was recorded three weeks ago, which has affected about 50 families in the area who depend on fishing to feed themselves. PDVSA alleged that they do not have cleaning equipment.
Santa Fe is a mainly indigenous community with limited economic resources. Maria Gonzalez explained to Radio Fe y Alegría News that if they don’t fish, they don’t eat. “Three weeks ago there was a strong oil spill that damaged the networks, it deteriorated all of them. The clams died and the oil washed ashore.”
With the clams that they manage to collect, they eat or barter for a kilo of food. González explained that they went to PDVSA but they were told that “they did not have the resources to be able to clean the shores of the beach. That the marullo (movement of the waves) will have to come and that it will take away with time.
The residents of Santa Fe Las Playas also went to the mayor’s office and the municipal council of Mara, but they did not receive a timely response either.
Between January and July 2022 there have been at least six oil spills in bodies of water in the states Zulia, Anzoategui, Falcon and Delta Amacuro, all related to Pvdsa and its subsidiaries.
On June 23, PDVSA announced the activation of an environmental sanitation and restoration plan on the shores of the Puerto Cabello, Palmarejo de Mara sectors and other points on the coast of the Maracaibo municipality. Said plan included the collection of oiled material on the banks.
In addition, “scheduled overflights will continue to be coordinated for the identification of any event that can be registered in the lake facilities and that requires timely attention from the state company,” the press release read.
The Blue Environmental Foundation has said that Mara has become the epicenter of oil spills since last June 12. That day began the excessive spills of crude oil that have spread to the rest of the region, affecting the municipalities of Cabimas, Santa Rita, Lagunillas and Maracaibo.
They estimate that in the lake “between 300 and a thousand barrels of oil are spilled daily as a result of the lack of maintenance and investment in the oil industry.”
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