United States Ambassador David Young has asked President Lazarus Chakwera to dismiss public officers implicated in corruption to demonstrate his commitment to fight the vice perpetuating poverty in the country.
He said this on Wednesday evening at his residence in Lilongwe during the commemoration of the first anniversary of the US Government’s Juneteenth National Day attended by senior Malawi Government officials including Cabinet ministers, Speaker of Parliament Catherine Gotani Hara, Malawi Defence Force Commander General Vincent Nundwe as well as other diplomats and dignitaries.
Tembo (R) and Young propose a toast
Young said while Malawi is making efforts to grow its economy, government should step up efforts to combat corruption.
He said: “Corruption creates a web of relationships that perpetuate poverty and illegality. Battling corruption is a long-term battle, but it must begin today in earnest. The corrupt must be dismissed from positions of power.
“Through the development of a culture of transparency and openness and with a strong dedication to access to information for the public, the rot of corruption will fade.”
The envoy stressed that the fight against corruption is Malawi’s battle and, therefore, should be led by Malawians.
He pledged that the US and other development partners will continue supporting Malawi’s efforts in combatting the vice.
Young joins other voices from the diplomatic community, including the United Kingdom (UK) and European Union (EU), who have also expressed worry with the levels of corruption in the country.
The EU has previously indicated that its resumption of direct budgetary support is partly dependent on the fight against corruption.
And in his speech during Queen Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations held in Lilongwe last week, British High Commissioner David Beer also took advantage of the presence of senior government officials to tackle the issue of corruption.
Britain’s National Crimes Agency (NCA) is currently investigating Malawian-born UK-based businessperson Zuneth Sattar on allegations that he bribed politically-exposed persons in Malawi to gain favours in form of public contracts.
Besides corruption, Young said Malawi’s other big task is to grow the economy through increased investment and private sector engagement.
Speaking during the event, Minister of Foreign Affairs Nancy Tembo said the Chakwera administration is committed to fight against corruption by, among others, ensuring an independent ACB.
She acknowledged that Malawi is going through many challenges, including economic hardships, extreme poverty, diseases and food insecurity, but added that government is aware that countering these challenges requires pragmatic and sustainable policy solutions.
Said Tembo: “The Malawi Government is currently implementing an array of short, medium and long-term programmes. These include the Covid-19 Socio-Economic Recovery Plan, the Social Cash Transfer Programme, the Affordable Inputs Programme and provision of loans to small and medium-scale enterprises through the National Economic Empowerment Fund.”
Juneteenth National Day was set aside to commemorate the emancipation of enslaved African-Americans in the US.
The Chinese government is working to prevent continued diplomatic fallout and protect its image in Africa after racist videos of African children made by a Chinese man living in Malawi surfaced this week.
The BBC’s investigative report into the videos found a man named Lu Ke who allegedly filmed African children unknowingly saying offensive things in Mandarin such as “I’m a black monster and I have a low IQ.” The videos were then sold on a Chinese website, according to the BBC.
The news sparked outrage in Malawi, with netizens expressing their fury on Twitter and Foreign Minister Nancy Tembo saying the country felt “disgusted, disrespected and deeply pained.”
After the Chinese Embassy in Malawi was initially criticized for its tepid response to the scandal, dismissing the videos as old news because they were filmed in 2020, they released a new, stronger statement on Thursday.
The embassy said, “The Chinese community in Malawi has voiced their condemnation to racism in strong words,” adding that “the isolated case by a fool individual does not change the whole picture.”
China’s top diplomat in the region, Wu Peng, has also been engaging in damage control. He went to Malawi on Tuesday, where he met government officials, tweeting, “Nice to feel in person the Warm Heart of Africa. Malawi is a beautiful country with lovely people.”
Wu Peng also tweeted, “I just reached an agreement with Malawian FM that both #China&#Malawi have zero tolerance for racism. China has been cracking down on these unlawful acts in the past yrs. We’ll continue to crack down on such racial discrimination videos in the future.”
The day after his visit, Malawi’s Ministry for Foreign Affairs tweeted about a new Chinese scholarship opportunity for Malawians to study in China for a master’s degree, which some skeptics online saw as another way for Beijing to mitigate the fallout from the scandal.
Many Malawians are unconvinced by China’s apologies. The online news publication Malawi 24 reported that a Malawi-based group, the Centre for Democracy and Economic Development Initiatives, has called on the police to trace all Chinese nationals in the country and find out whether they’re there illegally or misrepresenting their reasons for being in the country.
Ralph Mathekga, a South African political analyst, told VOA that China has a history of racism toward Africans, yet governments on the continent were often loath to raise such issues because of Beijing’s economic clout.
“The video is not too surprising. … I think China is never brought to account in human rights and race relations in the country’s relationship with Africa,” he said.
But Cobus van Staden from the South African Institute of International Affairs said the videos could still be damaging.
“These kinds of depictions of Africans have a long, bad historical precedence. … I think it could be harmful for China’s image on the continent,” van Staden told VOA.
In Washington, Marco Rubio, a Republican senator from Florida and one of the most vocal China critics in Congress, tweeted about the BBC documentary, saying it was “disgusting and inhumane” and directly blaming the Communist Party of China.
In recent years, one of Beijing’s key talking points has been racism in the United States. Chinese officials and state media regularly focus on high-profile cases of police killings of African Americans like George Floyd to accuse the U.S. of racism and human rights abuses.
Nigeria’s health sector is one that has suffered all forms of neglect as other key sectors, such as education. At almost 62 years (by October 1), and blessed with enough resources, both human and capital, the country, by all standards, should have been more developed to the point of contending for a World Power status. But this is obviously not the case. Historically, though, Nigeria has undergone various forms of development: from the days of colonial rule, through self rule characterised by years of military dictatorship with intermittent civilian rule, to the present day democracy, the country could easily be said to have seen the good, bad, and ugly of its existence as a country. Unfortunately, however, this has not reflected in what the country has become today by global consideration, compared to even some countries that have far less resources to boast of, and hence considered poorer. Consequently, its history, particularly the nasty side, keeps repeating itself, and this manifests in virtually all sectors of the country’s being, one of which is the Health Sector. Like all sectors of Nigeria’s economy, the health sector has not been given the attention it deserves, resulting in not just those who have the wherewithal to seek effective and reliable health care outside the shores of the land, but also brain drain of the country’s finest health care providers to other countries. Nigeria, no doubt, currently faces tremendous health challenges. Experts have at various points sought to identify these challenges from different perspectives. In spite of the diverse reasons they arrived at, all are agreed on three: Corruption, Lack of proper funding, and Bad (or poor) management of resources. Available statistics on Nigeria’s health sector paint a grim picture: an average of 20,000 Nigerians travel to India each year for medical assistance due to the absence of a solid healthcare system at home; and Nigeria is responsible for a high amount of under-five child death. In a recent report, the United Nations Children Education Fund (UNICEF) said “preventable or treatable infectious diseases such as malaria, pneumonia, diarrhea, measles and HIV/AIDS account for more than 70per centof an estimated one million under-five deaths in Nigeria”. The World Health Organisation (WHO) also stated in another report that nearly ten percent of newborn deaths in the world last year occurred in Nigeria, and that five countries accounted for half of all newborn deaths, with Nigeria third on the list. These countries are India (24 per cent), Pakistan (10per cent), Nigeria (9per cent), the Democratic Republic of the Congo (4per cent) and Ethiopia (3per cent). Most newborn deaths occurred in two regions: Southern Asia (39per cent) and sub-Saharan Africa (38per cent). Although some other studies, like the Global Burden of disease, show steady improvements in child survival rates, the persistent rate of avoidable deaths in Nigeria truly calls for concern. The question that readily comes to mind is why Nigeria’s health sector is in such precarious state, given its human and capital resources, which are globally acclaimed as the best? Is it the result of lack of personnel? This is not likely, considering that about 77per cent of African American doctors in the United States (US) are Nigerians. In fact, Nigerians have achieved notable feats in American medicine to the point that there is now a popular joke that if all Nigerians withdrew their services from the health sector in the US, the sector would collapse. In this wise, the story of the Nigerian Doctor, Oluyinka Olutoye, based in Houston, is still very fresh: he made history not long ago by bringing out a foetus from a mother’s womb, removed a tumour, and then successfully restored the unborn baby in the womb. there is hardly any top medical institution in the US or Europe where you will not find Nigerians managing at the top echelon. Universities, both in Nigeria and abroad, annually churn out hundreds of qualified medical doctors that could compete favourably with their peers in the globe to a reasonable extent, even with the disadvantage of a beleaguered educational system suffering from the same plague as its health counterpart. This brings one to the issue of corruption in Nigeria’s health sector, which, not surprisingly, is only a manifestation of what all other sectors of the economy are and which ultimately points to the fact that those who are in governance have not deemed it necessary to improve the sector, knowing that they could afford the best treatment in the world. Government’s performance in the health sector in terms of creating the enabling environment for the development of the health sector, at best, has been abysmal. Investment in infrastructure has been poor and meager remuneration for health workers has resulted in a massive brain drain to the US and Europe, where they are highly taken care of. According to the President of the Medical and Dental Consultants Association of Nigeria (MDCAN), Dr Victor Makanjuola, more than 100 of its members left the country in the past 24 months. As at 2020, Nigeria had a doctor-patient ratio of 1:2,753, in sharp contrast to the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) minimum recommended ratio of 1:400 or 600. In his words, “the mass exodus of medical and dental consultants to more developed countries has brought significant disruptions to Nigeria’s health care ecosystem”. Meanwhile, the annual budget of the government for the health sector is 4.17per cent of the total national budget, which is the equivalent to only $5 per person per year. Hardly does a year pass without a major national strike by nurses, doctors, or health consultants. The major reasons for these strikes are poor salaries and lack of government investment in the health sector. Unfortunately, many Nigerians cannot afford services of private hospitals, because they are simply too expensive. Finance is obviously a major problem for patients. Consequently, it would not be out of place for one to think that management of the National Health Scheme (NHS) through the Health Maintenance Organisations (HMOs) would help people secure better quality health care. But, here, again, corruption has crushed this opportunity and made quality medical care inaccessible for people who contributed to the system, because they do not get the value of their contribution. In terms of funding, despite the myriads of healthcare issues experienced by Nigerians, the Federal Government has continued to pay lip service to funding the health sector. With each subsequent Minister of Health in Nigeria, the country’s return to democratic rule in 1999 assumes office with high hopes of transforming the health sector, majority of them left the position with little or no positive effect to the sector, and, by extension, not making any significant impact on the health of Nigerians. Some even left the sector worse off. This is partly due to their poor policy formulations, leadership styles, or insurmountable challenges they met on ground, which also include the unwillingness of relevant authorities, such as the Presidency and National Assembly, to do the needful. Global economic and development experts have often said for any nation to be considered strong economically, and on human capital development, it must have given priority to the education, and health of its citizenry. This seems to be why in April 2001, members of the African Union (AU), including Nigeria, met in Abuja and agreed to allocate 15 per cent of their national budgets to the health sector with the belief that if this was done, the poor health indices across the continent would be resolved in five years. Unfortunately, Nigeria could not use the same clout it exhibited in bringing these countries together to make that “Abuja Declaration” come alive: Nigeria had since then refused to honour an agreement it played host to 21 years ago, resulting in the poor health indices, high mortality rate and reduced life expectancy rate currently experienced in the country. Since the declaration, the highest health allocation for Nigeria was in 2012 where 5.95 per cent was allotted to the health sector. In 2014, it allocated N216.40 billion (4.4per cent) , in 2015, it was N237 billion (5.5per cent), while in 2016 and 2017 it was 4.23per cent and 4.16per cent respectively. 2018 followed the same trend, with further reduction of the proposed health sector allocation from 4.16 per cent in 2017 to 3.9 per cent, even with the ever growing health sector concerns. Meanwhile, (WHO) says, for Nigeria to be seen to prioritise healthcare, it must at least spend a minimum of N6, 908 per Nigerian in a year. When multiplied by 200 million people it will amount to N1.4 trillion. WHO, also recommended a minimum of 13 per cent of annual budget for health. Notably, the Nigerian Government has not tilted towards the WHO’s 13 per cent, not to talk about the AU’s 15 per cent, even as some countries have started raising their health budgetary allocation towards fully keying into the WHO recommendation of 13 per cent or the Abuja Declaration by the African Union of 15 per cent. Rwanda, for instance, reportedly devoted 18 per cent of its total 2016 budget to healthcare; Botswana budgeted 17.8 per cent; Malawi, 17.1 per cent; Zambia, 16.4 per cent; and Burkina Faso, 15.8 per cent. Nigeria, on the other hand, still lags behind in this regard, a situation that has had direct consequences on the funding capacity of the Health Ministry and its affiliated agencies and parastatals, thereby making the fight against poor healthcare very unrealistic. For instance, while N340 billion was allocated to the health sector in the 2018 national budget, how much was indeed released by the Federal Government to the sector at the end of the day, and how much was actually spent could not be ascertained. This brings to the fore the challenge of “bad management of resources”, which are even in adequate at the point of allocation, and possible release, which cannot be ascertained. This scenario vividly captures the situation at the lower two tiers of the health sector – State and Local Government – which even spend far less in percentage. Here, however, Rivers State stands out, as the incumbent Governor, Nyesom Wike, made the health sector part of his priority. Since he assumed office in 2015, He has touched virtually all facets of the health sector from infrastructural development, through provision of equipment, and man power development for the sector. It started with the workforce in the primary healthcare community, which was on strike, and the secondary health care sector, which was either shut down or facilities dilapidated when he assumed office. Governor Wike quickly swung into action with what later became his characteristic energy and proactive leadership style by first recalling the striking Primary Health workers to work, and also paid House Officers at the then Braithwaite Memorial Specialist Hospital (BMSH) their outstanding dues and allowances, inherited from the previous administration. The question likely to be playing in the hearts of keen observers of the health sector in the State may not be far from whether his successor can continue from where he will stop at the end of his tenure. At the Federal level, there have been calls for a way forward. Most of such calls harp on the need for policy makers in the country and health professionals in Nigeria and the Diaspora to come together and come up with a blue print for the sector. Such blueprint should have a time frame for each stage, and be genuinely followed to the letter. They also propose a genuine and deliberate effort by the Federal Government to meet either the WHO’s 13 percent or AU’s 15 percent of total budget to the development of the health sector in terms of infrastructural and human capacity development, and equipment, as well as ensure that such monies are put into the use they are meant for.
Death has been announced of Zambia’s veteran politician Sikota Wina who was also the country’s first Minister of Health.
Mr Sikotwa was a member of the Legislative Council and the National Assembly.
He also held the posts of Minister for Local Government and Minister of Information, Broadcasting and Tourism.
The deceased was born on 31 August 1931 and was originally married to Glenda Puteho McCoo, an African-American, before marrying Nakatindi Wina, a politician and member of the Barotseland royal family, in the 1970s.
ATLANTA (AGV): A statement signed by 32 Malawians mainly in the Diaspora has been submitted to Malawi President Lazarus chakwera stating their displeasure with his leadership style and the ongoing crisis and corruption going on in the country since he assumed power after court ordered elections.
The signees demand accountability and ask the government to rise to the occasion and fulfill the responsibility bestowed on it by the electorate on 23 June 2020
STATEMENT ON THE LEADERSHIP CRISIS AND CORRUPTION IN MALAWI
Opposition leader Dr Lazarus Chakwera (Malawi Congress Party) went on to form a coalition with fellow opposition politician Dr Saulos Chilima (UTM)
We, Malawian academics, and professionals in the diaspora, note with great concern the growing leadership crisis in Malawi and the worsening socio-economic conditions which have made life unbearable for ordinary Malawians. We are disappointed that the promise of a new dawn represented by the decisions of the High Court, sitting as the Constitutional Court, and the Malawi Supreme Court of Appeal, which nullified the 2019 presidential election and ordered a fresh presidential election, remains unfulfilled.
The Tonse Alliance government revealed, upon assuming power, mindboggling levels of looting and corruption committed under the previous government. Malawians expected that the new government would draw a line behind state looting and corruption, firstly, by investigating and prosecuting all those implicated and, secondly, by putting in place mechanisms to prevent the recurrence of such crimes. Indeed, in his own words, the newly elected president repeatedly proclaimed that one of his government’s priorities was to “clear the rubble” of corruption that had permeated the Malawian body politic. Malawians were hopeful that, at last, they had voted into power a government that would fight corruption not just with empty words but with concrete actions.
However, almost two years down the line, corruption and looting are getting worse. We are alarmed at the regularity with which revelations about new corruption and looting scandals are being made. These scandals have implicated those at the very top of the government, businesspeople, civil servants, police, and military officials. In response, the government has, at best, exhibited an indifferent attitude and, at worst, behaved in a manner that suggests a coverup or an intention to obstruct the course of justice.
Institutions legally empowered to investigate and prosecute corruption, such as the Anti- Corruption Bureau (ACB), have been weakened and isolated. Intimidation tactics have included public emasculation of the Director General of the ACB and the deployment of mercenary protesters. Presidential instructions to the ACB also undermine its independence.
Moreover, the police and other law enforcement agencies are pursuing investigations and prosecution of alleged perpetrators of massive theft and abuse of state resources only half-heartedly or, at any rate, without any apparent sense of urgency. The Ministry of Justice, which is supposed to be the bastion of the rule of law, has lost direction.
At the centre of this depressing state of affairs is the absence of political leadership. Within government, there appears to be no political will to address for the last time the growing socio-economic and other problems the country faces. On its part, the opposition is fragmented and lacks the legitimacy and credibility to serve as a rallying point for change. For the ordinary person, there is no hope. Malawi faces an existential crisis as a country, a crisis which is human-made, and is therefore humanly resolvable. The erosion of faith in the ability or willingness of the government and political leaders to address the country’s mounting socio-economic crisis does not augur well for the future of politics in our country.
Aside from the promise of a new dawn that was ushered in by the election of the Tonse Alliance, there was also the promise of an enhanced form of civic engagement in political and public affairs by ordinary Malawians. Civil society – represented by non-governmental organizations, religious and faith-based organizations, professional associations, youth and
women’s organizations, individual social and political activists, among others – played a significant role in keeping the previous government under a watchful eye and subjecting it to legitimate criticism on issues of corruption and bad governance. We note with disappointment, however, that while some of these civil society voices have remained vigilant in identifying the failures of leadership and the broken promises of change under the Tonse Alliance government, others have become muted, willfully, or otherwise, or seem to have been co-opted into the culture of corruption that they previously decried.
We call upon the government to rise to the occasion and fulfill the responsibility bestowed on it by the electorate on 23 June 2020. We believe that the legal and policy tools to fight corruption are in place, and concrete action in this regard does not need to wait for future public consultations, including a conference on corruption. We urge:
The ruling parties to review the promises they made to the people of Malawi and ensure that they make a genuine effort to adopt and implement policies that would improve the economy and living conditions of the people.
The government and all its agencies to uphold the rule of law and respect the independence of all crime-fighting agencies. The government must provide adequate support to these agencies.
The Ministry of Justice to fulfill its responsibilities professionally and ensure that justice is administered in a just and fair manner.
The government should suspend all those implicated in corruption and looting, without prejudice to their constitutionally guaranteed right to presumption of innocence and ensure that criminal allegations are investigated and prosecuted expeditiously.
The government to strengthen all institutions of accountability and ensure that they function under optimum conditions and independently.
Civil society organizations to remain vigilant, independent, and principled in demanding accountability and transparency from those who hold power.
Signed
Sibo Banda, Maynooth University Law Department, Ireland
Alex Chanthunya, Private Attorney, Maryland, United States
Josiah Chavula, Computer Scientist, University of Cape Town, South Africa
Danwood Chirwa, Dean and Professor of Law, University of Cape Town, South Africa
Wanangwa Chirwa, Professor and SAFCOL Forestry Chair, University of Pretoria, South Africa
Dr. Daniel Dube, Fellow of the American College of Physicians, Consultant Physician, Plum Telemed Inc, United States
Mafaniso Hara, Professor, PLAAS, University of the Western Cape, South Africa
James Kadyampakeni, Chief Economic Advisor, Government of Canada
Alexander Kambiri, Development Management Specialist, Bonn, Germany
George Lwanda, Economist, Trade and Development Expert, the Gambia
Dr. John Lwanda, Hon. Senior Research Fellow, Institute of Health & Wellbeing, Glasgow University, United Kingdom
Tom Likambale, Ottawa, Canada
Tiyanjana Maluwa, H. Laddie Montague Chair in Law & Professor of Law and International Affairs, Penn State University School of Law, United States
Samuel Manda, Professor and Head of Department of Statistics, University of Pretoria, South Africa
Sam A. Mchombo, Associate Professor, Department of African American Studies, University of California at Berkeley, United States
Mtendewaka Mhango, Professor and Dean of Law, University of Lesotho, Lesotho
Martin Mkandawire, Professor of Chemistry, Cape Breton University, Nova Scotia, Canada
Fulata Lusungu Moyo, Founder and Board Member, Thimlela-STREAM, Dullier, Switzerland
Lupenga J. Mphande, Associate Professor and Director of Study Abroad, Department of African American and African Studies, Ohio State University, United States
Mpalive-Hangson Msiska, Reader Emeritus in English and Humanities, Birkbeck, University of London, United Kingdom
Leah Mwambene, Professor and Deputy Dean of Law, University of the Western Cape, South Africa
Dr. Cromwell P Msuku, Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist (Retired), Buffalo, NY, United States
Chatonda Mtika, Electrical Engineer, Washington, DC, United States
Mwiza Munthali, Civil Society Activist, formerly of TransAfrica, Washington, DC, United States
Dr. Geoffrey S. Mwaungulu, FACP (Internal Medicine), Former Medical Director for Medicare Advantage, Inverness, FL, United States
Paul Mzandu, Senior Programmer Analyst, Department of National Defence, Canada
Cedrick G. Ngalande, Senior Principal Systems Engineer, Raytheon Intelligence & Space Systems, Los Angeles, United States
Bryne Ngwenya, Professor of Microbial Geochemistry, University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom
Louis Nthenda, Professor Emeritus and Writer, Fujisawa City, Japan
Linda L. Semu, Professor of Sociology, McDaniel College, Maryland, United States
Paul Tiyambe Zeleza, Associate Provost and the North Star Distinguished Professor, Case Western Reserve University, United States
Alex Leiva, holding his baby girl, uses the water he managed to collect in barrels at 4:00 a.m., the only time the service is provided in Lotificación Praderas, in the canton of Cabañas, on the outskirts of the municipality of Apopa, north of the Salvadoran capital. The families of this region are fighting in defense of water, against an urban development project for wealthy families that threatens the water resources in the area. CREDIT: Edgardo Ayala/IPS
APOPA, El Salvador , Jun 6 2022 (IPS) – Alex Leiva woke up at 4:00 a.m. to perform a key task for his family’s survival in the Salvadoran village where he lives: filling several barrels with the water that falls from the tap only at that early hour every other day.
If he does not collect water between 4:00 and 5:00 AM, he will not have another opportunity to fill the barrels for another two days.
“That’s what I have to do. Sometimes I manage to fill three barrels. The service is provided every other day,” Leiva, 32, a video producer, told IPS.
“It’s difficult to be in a situation like this, where the water supply is so inefficient,” he added.
In El Salvador there are at least 3,000 of these boards, community associations that play an essential role in the supply and management of water resources in rural areas and the peripheries of cities, in the face of the State’s failure to provide these areas with water.
Leiva lives in Lotificación Praderas, in the Cabañas canton, on the outskirts of the municipality of Apopa, north of the country’s capital, San Salvador.
This northern area covering several municipalities has been in conflict in recent years since residents of these communities began to fight against an urban development project by one of the country’s most powerful families, the Dueñas.
The Dueñas clan’s power dates back to the days of the so-called coffee oligarchy, which emerged in the mid-19th century.
Ciudad Valle El Angel is the name of the residential development to be built in this area on 350 hectares, and which will require some 20 million liters of water per day to supply the families that decide to buy one of the 8,000 homes.
The first feasibility permits granted by Anda to the consortium date back to 2015.
The homes are designed for upper middle-class families who decide to leave behind the chaos of San Salvador and to live with all the comforts of modern life, with water 24 hours a day, in the midst of poor communities that lack a steady water supply.
“There are people in my community who manage to fill only one barrel because there isn’t enough water pressure,” said Leiva, the father of a five-year-old boy and a nine-month-old baby girl.
Valle El Angel is an extensive region located on the slopes of the San Salvador volcano, in territories shared by municipalities north of the capital, including Apopa, Nejapa and Opico.
A general view of Parcelación El Ángel, in the Joya Galana canton, in the municipality of Apopa, near San Salvador. The community is fighting to defend the few natural resources that survive in the area, including a stream that originates in the micro-basin of the Chacalapa River. Water in the area is scarce, while Salvadoran authorities endorse an upscale real estate project that will use millions of liters per day. CREDIT: Edgardo Ayala/IPS
Unfair justice
Sociedad Dueñas Limitada, the consortium managing the urban development project, received the definitive green light to begin construction: a thumbs-up from the Constitutional court, which on Apr. 29, 2022 rejected an unconstitutionality lawsuit filed in October 2019 by environmental organizations and communities in northern San Salvador.
The lawsuit was against a dubious agreement signed in 2016 between that company and Anda, which manages water in the country. The deal granted the project 240 liters of water per second – that is, about 20 million liters a day.
The consortium intends to dig eight wells in the area. Water will be extracted from the San Juan Opico aquifer, as well as from shallower groundwater from Apopa and Quezaltepeque.
“These agreements open the door to this type of illegal concessions handed over to private companies…it is a situation that is not being addressed from a comprehensive perspective that meets the needs of the people, but rather from a mercantilist perspective,” lawyer Ariela González told IPS.
González added: “It is our public institutions that legalize this dispossession of environmental assets, through these mechanisms that allow the companies to whitewash the environmental impact studies.”
The organizations and local communities argue that water is a human right, for the benefit of the community, and also insisted in the lawsuit that the aquifers are part of the subsoil, property of the State.
Therefore, if any company was to be granted any benefit from that subsoil, the concession could have to be endorsed by the legislature, which did not happen.
Sara García and Martina Vides are members of an ecofeminist collective that has been fighting for five years to prevent the construction of a large residential project in the area, Ciudad Valle El Ángel, owned by one of the most powerful families in El Salvador. CREDIT: Edgardo Ayala/IPS
The resolution handed down by the Constitutional chamber of the Supreme Court comes at a time when people have lost trust in the Constitutional court in this Central American country of 6.7 million people.
The five Constitutional court magistrates were appointed without following the regular procedure on May 1, 2021, when the new legislature was installed, controlled by lawmakers from President Nayib Bukele’s party, Nuevas Ideas, which holds 56 out of 84 seats.
“This government continues to benefit big capital and destroy local territories,” Sara García, of the ecofeminist group Kawoc Women’s Collective and the Let’s Save the Valle El Ángel movement, which forms part of the Water Forum, told IPS.
García´s fellow activist Martina Vides added: “We want protection for the aquifers and to prevent the felling of trees.”
Both women spoke to IPS on a rainy gray afternoon on the last day of May, in the Parcelación El Ángel, where they live, in the Joya Galana canton, also in the municipality of Apopa, which is in the middle of the impact zone.
A short distance away is the river that provides water to this and other communities, which originates in the micro-watershed of the Chacalapa River. Water is supplied under a community management scheme organized by the local water board.
Vides pays six dollars a month for the water service, although she only receives running water three or four days a week.
According to official figures, in this country 96.3 percent of urban households have access to piped water, but the proportion drops to 78.4 percent in the countryside, where 10.8 percent are supplied by well water and 10.7 percent by other means.
Since the Ciudad Valle El Angel project began to be planned, environmentalists and community representatives have been protesting against it with street demonstrations and activities because it will negatively impact the area’s environment, especially the aquifers.
The struggle for water in El Salvador has been going on for a long time, with activists demanding that it be recognized as a human right, with access for the entire population, because the country is one of the hardest hit by the climate crisis, especially the so-called Dry Corridor.
For more than 10 years, environmental and social collectives have been pushing for a water law, reaching preliminary agreements with past governments. But since the populist Bukele came to power, the progress made in this direction has been undone.
In December 2021, the legislature approved a General Water Resources Law, which excluded the already pre-agreed social proposals, although it recognizes the human right to water and establishes that the water supply will not be privatized. However, this is not enforced in practice, as demonstrated by the Dueñas’ urban development project.
A vendor of a traditional ice cream in El Salvador, made with shaved ice bathed in fruit syrup, waits for customers on one of the streets of Parcelación El Ángel, in the municipality of Apopa, north of the capital. The locality is one of the epicenters where poor families have been organizing to block a residential development project, which will affect the local water supply and worsen the water shortage in the area. CREDIT: Edgardo Ayala/IPS
Not the only one
The residential development project is neither the first nor the only one in the area.
Residential complexes of this type have already been built in that area for the upper middle class, thanks to investments made by other wealthy families in the country, such as the Poma family.
And the same type of agreements have been reached with these other companies, in which the consortiums receive an endorsement to obtain water for their projects, said González.
The same thing has happened in the surroundings of the Cordillera del Bálsamo, south of the capital, where residential projects have been developed around municipalities such as Zaragoza, close to the beaches of the Pacific Ocean.
In Valle El Ángel there is also at least one company whose main raw material is water. This is Industrias La Constancia, which owns the Coca Cola brand in the country and other brands of juices and energy drinks, located in the municipality of Nejapa.
González, the Fespad lawyer, said that there should be a moratorium in the country in order to stop, for a time, this type of investment that threatens the country’s environmental assets, especially water.
But until that happens, if it ever does, and until the water supply improves, Alex Leiva will continue to get up at 4 a.m. every other day to fill his three barrels.
