A Maryknoll-supported organization in the southern Andes of Peru has won a landmark victory in a case for water rights.
Maryknoll Sister Patricia Ryan founded Derechos Humanos y Medio Ambiente (Human Rights and Environment) to elevate voices of Indigenous peoples in the area who are easily exploited by extractive industries and often marginalized in the course of development.
In 2017, DHUMA — the group’s acronym in Spanish — raised concerns over the contamination of the water supply used by the Aymara and Quechua Indigenous people living on the high plateau near Lake Titicaca in southern Peru. A study by the regional health authority in the city of Puno of the well water used for human consumption found heavy metals such as arsenic and mercury from nearby legal and illegal gold mines, as well as pollution from untreated sewer water from more than 20 cities and towns.
Working with the local community, DHUMA sued the government agencies responsible for allowing the pollution to continue for decades. Nearly seven years of litigation later, the courts handed down a favorable verdict in September 2023. The judge ordered the government agencies to end wastewater discharge, begin construction of treatment plants for sewage and hospital waste, and install water and sewer service in the cities of Juliaca, Coata and three neighboring districts. That decision was affirmed on appeal in March of 2024, and by May, the National Water Authority made the first round of water monitoring tests pursuant to the court order.
“This is the first judicial case with a sentence that orders a stop to the dumping of solid waste and wastewater into a river and lake,” said lawyer Juan Carlos Ruíz of the non-profit Instituto de Defensa Legal (Legal Defense Institute) in Lima, which worked with DHUMA on the case. “That has never been achieved before. It opens a way at the national level to defend water sources.”
DHUMA’s work highlights the urgency for justice for Indigenous peoples overlooked by their governments. The drawn-out legal battle is evidence of their uphill struggle. At the same time, the court decision is a victory in a legal area where good news is often hard to come by.
For many environmental rights activists the news is usually tragic. In a decade of reporting, the nonprofit Global Witness in the United Kingdom has documented nearly 2,000 assassinations of environmental defenders since 2012. From their latest report, the year 2022 saw 177 environmental activists murdered, about one every other day. Nearly nine out of 10 of these murders occurred in Latin America, home to the Amazon Rainforest.
The work of DHUMA is far from over. “Implementing the measures mandated by the court ruling will be a monumental challenge,” explains environmental lawyer José Bayardo. “Infrastructure projects and specific policies are required to address both human health and environmental restoration. However, we are confident that the struggle of these communities for human dignity will be tireless and full of hope.”
The court decision shows what strategic legal and nonviolent action can achieve when communities and community organizations work together for justice.
Thomas Gould is communications manager for the Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns.
FAITH IN ACTION:
• Read more about DHUMA and follow them on social media: https://mogc.info/DHUMA
• Read more Global Witness’ reports on lethal attacks on human rights defenders https://mogc.info/GW-2024
• Write to your members of Congress in support of the FOREST Act, a bipartisan bill that would prohibit the importation of products sourced through illegal deforestation, including deforestation of the Amazon. https://mogc.info/FOREST
The Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns, based in Washington, D.C., is a resource for Maryknoll on matters of peace, social justice and integrity of creation, and brings Maryknoll’s mission experience into U.S. policy discussions. Phone (202) 832-1780, visit www.maryknollogc.org or email ogc@maryknollogc.org.
Feature imaged: Attorney José Bayardo and Maryknoll Sister Patricia Ryan work for the organization DHUMA, which has won a landmark victory for water rights. (Susan Gunn/Peru)
