Emergildo Criollo

about me

How I GO Further

I was born here in the forest along the shores of the AguaRico river. My people, the Cofan, have lived here since the beginning of memory. The forest and the river used to provide us with everything we ever needed – medicine, food, water, shelter. But with the arrival of Texaco many years ago, we lost our forest and our river to contamination, industry and colonization. The company put poisons in the forest and the river. The animals were scared away, poisoned or killed. I lost two of my children because of contamination. I have seen my people and other tribes, like the Siona and Secoya, suffer from strange sicknesses – deformations and rashes and cancer.

We have been fighting a lawsuit against the American company for many years. The company, Chevron, doesn’t want to respect us, or our right to clean water, our right to life. Without clean water we can’t survive.

We used to drink water from the river. But now we can’t because it is poisoned. The project Clear Water helps us collect clean water from the sky, from the rain. Clear Water is different than other projects that the government or other organizations do in our communities, because we, the people, are coordinating the project in communities. We have already installed 52 rainwater systems in my community of Cofan Dureno. Now our people can drink clean water just outside their house. And the children don’t drink from the polluted brooks anymore. Now the Cofan are going to teach the Secoya tribe how to install rainwater systems in their community, and then after that the Cofan and Secoya will teach the Siona how to install rainwater systems in their communities.

We think this is good. We know there are many people in the world that have helped us in our fight against Chevron. Now, we are asking the world to join us in providing clean water to our communities now. Only with clean water will our children grow up healthy. Only with clean water will we have the strength to keep fighting for justice.

Emergildo