SOTE-PIPELINE ACCIDENT, ECUADOR, 2nd EXPEDITION ACTIONS (CLIPREEL)

Papallacta, Ecuador, April 2003 - Caused by the breakage of the thirty-year-old SOTE oil pipeline approximately 10,000 barrels of crude oil spill into the ecologically sensitive rainforests of the Amazon region. Due to the difficult accessibility of the terrain and heavy rainfalls there is no possibility of avoiding the spread of oil. After a landslide the oil reaches several rivers and contaminates the region. Within four weeks this is already the second oil spill near the drinking water reservoir of the village of Papallacta which destroys plants, animal life and means of existence of the local people. The SOTE-pipeline mostly runs along the route of the projected OCP-pipeline (Oleoducto de Crudo Pesado, dt.: schweres Rohöl).
In February 2002 a Greenpeace team investigated the controversial OCP-pipeline project in Ecuador, funded by the West LB (Westdeutsche Landesbank), the proposed route of which was from the Pacific coast through undisturbed rainforests to the Amazon Basin of Ecuador, about 500 kms.
Footage shot in April 2003 includes:
1. Demonstration of campesinos concerned, marching demonstrators with banners, chanting, Quito, Ecuador, 15.4.2003, 1'22''
2. Oil spill / broken SOTE pipeline, decontamination works, Papallacta, Ecuador, 16./17.4.2003, 0'57''
3. Contaminated water reservoir, decontamination works in oil polluted water reservoir, Papallacta, Ecuador, 17.4.2003, 4'32''
4. Dead trouts, trout breeding, villagers find dead trouts, views of trout breeding basins, Papallacta, Ecuador, 16./17.4.2003, 2'15''
5. Hearing on the location, lawyers, engineers and villagers talk about the cause of the oil spill, Papallacta, Ecuador, 18.4.2003, 1'34''
6. Aerial shots, aerial shots of the Amazon rainforest, Amazon region, 18.4.2003, 1'24''
7. Welcome of the Kechua people, 'CHICARA'-feast, villagers walk to location of the feast and dance to drumbeats, Sarayacu, Ecuador, 19.4.2003, 4'55''
8. Village scenes, village life, Sarayacu, Ecuador, 19.4.2003, 1'30''
9.Villagers' meeting, OCP-problems, Sarayacu, Ecuador, 19.4.2003, 1'09''
10.Hunting and collecting herbs in the rainforest, villagers hunt and collect herbs in the jungle, Sarayacu, Ecuador, 22.4.2003, 6'40''

4 May, 2003

27m43s