Censat Agua Viva

Summary:
Currently, coal mining activities threaten the existence of the Páramo El Almorzadero, located in the eastern part of the department Santander, in the town of Cerrito; responding to the commercial logic that seeks to attribute property titles of natural patrimonium to individuals, existing social and cultural constructions are forgotten that throughout history have made this páramo a territory of great importance for the existence of communities in the province of García Rovira.

Extended content:

In the highest parts of the Andes mountains, between the forest limit and the lower snow limit, one finds the páramos, complex and varied ecosystems, unique to the venezuelan, colombian, ecuatorian and peruvian regions of the tropical Andes. In Colombia they are locate on the three mountainchains that represent close to 1.3% of the country.

The páramos provide cultural and economical functions to the groups of people that live there. At the same time they provide several environmental and natural services, related the capacity to intercept, store and regulate the flow of surface and subterranean water, which give it a strategical value. These ecosystems harbour springs of many rivers, fundamental for the economy of the country, the waterprovision of urban centers, agricultural and industrial production and the generation of hidro electricity.  

The Province of García Rovira, in the departament of Santander, presents all the variety in termical layers, while a mainly cold climate dominates in the large zones of the Páramo. The temperature varies between 26 degrees celcius at the borders of the river Chicamocha to the colder temperatures in the Páramo of an average 8 degrees celcius. The highest altitutes with ecosystems of Páramo correspond to the towns of Guaca, San Andrés, Cerrito, Concepción and Carcasí.

The Páramo ecosystem span approximately 85.000 Ha., which represents 37.5% of the total surface of the province. In these Páramos originate ravines, rivers and approximately 31 lagunes, that aliment the riverbasins of  the river Servitá, the smaller rivers of Chicamocha and those of Colorado, Taveta and Chachabrí, siderivers of the Orinoco. The springs that originate in the towns of Cerrito, Guaca, San Andrés and Concepción, mainly, are part of a binational hydric system. In this way, the conservation and sustanability of these ecosystems is strategically important for García Rovira itself, as wel as Colombia and Venezuela.

In the regional and nacional context, the following treaths exist: the danger of restarting the exploitation of carbon antracite of national companies in the páramo el Almorzadero in the town of Cerrito and the bidding for the entire stripe of the páramos in the province, which would surely open the way for transnational companies to enter the region generating unwanted changes and environmental, social and cultural impacts. While the town of Cerrito and the surrounding municipalities of the province have grown, since their foundation, developing themselves based on their agriculture, which defines their cultural patterns and aims. Proof of this is reflected in the constant manifestation of the town’s people in favor of conservation of their water resources as an essential element for their survival and the sustainability of their agricultural activities.