With their sights set on the Legislature and resistance on the roads, the inhabitants of the Andean region continue to fight for water in Chubut. “The zoning project was promoted by Arcioni, but drafted by the mining companies and we say NO,” says Assemblywoman Nora Corvalán. “We say no to mega-mining because we defend water, which is the most precious good and this is installed in the people of the plateau with an unsurpassable clarity because our destiny as a province is not mining and because it is an activity that is associated with plundering, which is already contaminating us, and the Mapuche communities that have never been consulted are being trampled on,” says Nora Corvalán, member of the Regional Assembly Against Plunder. The Chubut Legislature seeks to approve the zoning project promoted by the national and provincial governments, despite the massive rejection of its inhabitants and the entire country. Last Thursday, May 6, this same chamber rejected the treatment of the Popular Initiative (IP) bill, which seeks to stop mining zoning. In response, the provincial assemblies cut off National Routes No. 40 and No. 3, and the latter was evicted by the police. “At the same time that we presented the IP, the zoning project promoted by Arcioni was introduced, but drafted by the mining companies. We know who is behind it. Law 5,001 was passed in 2003 that protects the province from mining. But it protects it from exploitation, not from exploration, and focuses on cyanide and open-pit mining,” explains the assemblywoman. Regarding the differences between the projects, Corvalán highlights: “What we did from the Popular Initiative was to include not only cyanide but a whole list of toxic substances used in mega-mining and to prohibit the mining of nuclear minerals. Now we are attentive to the agenda of each session to go out and reject zoning. In fact, it doesn’t even have to appear on the agenda because since it is in the Legislative Secretariat, any legislator can ask for it during the session in question.” On the other hand, the roadblock they maintain on Route 40 has an additional ingredient that increases the unrest. “This roadblock is the one that has lasted until now with a lot of effort, but it is maintained. This week we learned of the order of Judge Otranto that establishes that we have to guarantee free circulation. The 35th squadron of the gendarmerie intervenes there, which generates a great impact on the entire population of the region because this judge and this squadron were the ones who caused the obstruction of the investigation of the forced disappearance followed by the death of Santiago Maldonado,” says Corvalán. And he clarified: “There is no violence, but they are always present, registering the license plates of cars, taking photos. There is the latent threat of an eviction.” Two months after hell In March, the native forests between Las Golondrinas, Cholila, El Hoyo, El Maitén and Lago Puelo were consumed by fire and more than 250 houses were lost. This same population is the one that today goes out to endure the frost and resist the fight for water. “Water has to be for the people and not for mining. We are in that axis of water defense. It is very hard because all the inhabitants of that area that is there do not have, two months after the fires where they lost their homes and have been sleeping in the open air, neither light nor water. There is a great unrest regarding the lack of responses from the municipal and also provincial State,” says the assemblywoman. Follow us: www.canalabierto.com.ar www.facebook.com/CanalAbierto / canalabiertoar instagram.com/canalabierto WhatsApp: http://bit.ly/WhatsAppCanalAbierto #chubut #comarcaandina #noalamegamineria