The life in Caldas is great and calm, however threatened

By Balthazar Sellier (Master students exchange programme, cohort of 2024-2025)

My name is Balthazar Sellier, and I am 23 years old and a student in the international development research master’s programme at the University of Amsterdam. Thanks to the Riverhood and River Commons initiative, I am currently in Caldas, a department in the centre of Colombia, pursuing research on the relationships between peasants and the rivers. More specifically, I dive into the threat of hydroelectric projects to the meanings and values of rivers among peasants. The thesis enters the works of Ana Arbelaez-Trujillo, who launched the project here already two years ago.

For a few weeks, I am conducting my research here in Victoria, a village situated in the east of Caldas, Colombia. Like many other villages in Colombia, a central square gathers people in cafés and bars surrounding it with a church on the side. This square is even more splendid by the majestic ceiba, dressed in the middle by its 144-year-old. The music coming out of the bars mixes with the birds singing. The life is great and calm. However, it is constantly threatened by an underlying and persisting risk: hydroelectrical projects.

The eastern of Caldas overflows with water as several rivers flow within this region’s hills. Therefore, the government has made it its playground for developing hydroelectrical projects over the rivers. The project Miel I, which was the biggest dam in Colombia at that time, has submerged houses and disturbed ecosystems. It is still very present in the collective imagination of the inhabitants here, even more than 20 years later. The primary people affected are the peasants. By cultivating coffee, cacao, plantains and a variety of other vegetables and fruits on a small scale, maintaining an intimate connection to their surrounding ecosystem. Rivers drying up, the decline in food population, and deforestation caused by the construction of hydroelectric projects jeopardise not only their livelihoods but also the region’s biodiversity and, by extension, the well-being of the entire community.
A new hydroelectrical project revived these fears. Miel II, a run-of-river, is designed to supply Miel I with water. Miel II plans to be located in eastern Caldas, in the municipalities of Samaná, Marquetalia, and Victoria, along the La Miel River tributary – an area inhabited by peasant communities. The project is supposed to dig a long tunnel in the mountains to fill the turbines with more water and, therefore, energy. Recently, the project lost its environmental license, halting its construction. This situation stems from the persistent efforts of water justice movements, which have mobilised local inhabitants to stand against the threats to their livelihoods and environment. Movimiento Ambiental Campesino del Oriente de Caldas (MACO), created in 2015, is one of the main resistance organisations. Working closely with them, I am here to understand the local context better and speak with the peasants to grasp their feelings and experiences firsthand. By gathering these insights, we could shape a (new) narrative – one that highlights who the peasants truly are, the challenges they face because of the commodification of water and the profound significance the river holds for them. Moreover, other organisations are proposing environmentally sustainable alternatives, such as eco-tourism for Coporacion Viglas Ambientales de Victoria, and cross-generational pedagogy programmes for EcoVictoria. Therefore, through telling their stories, supported by a photographic journey I would lead, we could underscore the critical importance of protecting rivers.