WCC News: Where there is water, there is life: Cerrejón coal mine in Colombia is taking both

On 5 June, churches and faith-based organizations from Colombia, the United Kingdom, and Ireland, together with investment and ecumenical partners, submitted a complaint under the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises on Responsible Business Conduct. The complaint concerns HSBC Holdings plc and its financial relationship with Glencore, the company operating the Cerrejón coal mine in La Guajira, Colombia. This is the third in a feature story series that illustrates the impacts of the Cerrejón mining operation on the environment, water access, and pollution. Matilde Sapuana lives in the Wayúu indigenous community of Jamiche, La Guajira, Colombia. The Wayúu indigenous people of La Guajira, Colombia, have faced decades of displacement, contamination and cultural destruction linked to the Cerrejón open-cast coal mine — one of the largest in the world. Communities report polluted water, failing harvests, and chronic respiratory disease, while remaining excluded from the legal recognition that would give them access to basic rights and state services. Photo: Sean Hawkey/WCC 18 August 2026 In one of the most arid regions of South America, water is everything. The Ranchería River that flows through La Guajira, Colombia —La Guajira's only significant river—was once the lifeblood of the community, providing drinking water, irrigation for crops, and pasture for livestock across six of the region's 15 municipalities. The Wayúu Indigenous people built their lives around it before Glencore arrived. El Cerrejón, Latin America's largest open-pit coal mine, is reported to consume up to 30 million litres of water per day for mining operations. That level of extraction in this semi-arid area depletes the aquifers on which communities depend. At the same time, the average person in La Guajira has access to just 0.7 litres of water a day, untreated, according to research published by the Universidad de La Guajira and cited by the United Nations Development Programme. A mine consuming 30 million litres daily, in a community, where the average resident receives less than a litre, is a shameful disparity. Since the expansion of Cerrejón coal mine, the river has been systematically diverted to serve the mine's operations. Independent studies have found the Wayúu now draw water contaminated with arsenic, mercury, lead, zinc, barium, and fuel residues discharged from the mine. Water levels have dropped to the point where communities downstream face chronic shortages, and 17 tributaries have disappeared entirely. El Cerrejón mine, majority-owned by Glencore, has also rerouted water, diverting more than 20 tributaries of the Ranchería River away from their natural course in order to extract the coal beneath them, according to court findings.  Broken promises A government dam, El Cercado, built across the Ranchería in 2011, has complicated the water situation further. The government promised to supply nine municipalities with water from the dam via aqueducts—but it never built them. Today, the dam is widely suspected of supplying rice and palm crops owned by private companies while no individual or community can draw water from it—though this is disputed by the Colombian government, insisting that nobody has access to the dam's water. What is not in dispute is that the promise of a water supply remains unfulfilled.  The Ranchería river flows through La Guajira, Colombia — once the lifeblood of the Wayúu indigenous people, providing clean drinking water across one of South America's most arid regions. Since the expansion of El Cerrejón, Latin America's largest open-pit coal mine, the river has been systematically diverted to serve the mine's operations. Water levels have dropped to the point where communities downstream face chronic shortages, and seventeen tributaries have disappeared entirely. Photo: Sean Hawkey/WCC María Magdalena Brito, leader of the Wayúu community of El Pimiento describes what the dam has meant in practice: "The Ranchería River that supplies water has become a business. They fill up tanker trucks and send them to sell water. There is a dam that was built to supply water 24 hours a day—but it never worked. For us, no. For the companies, yes. For the inhabitants of the Indigenous zones, it has been of no use to us whatsoever.” Severe consequences The consequences for ordinary people are severe. "We have no water to raise our animals," says Brito. "The animals are dying of thirst. We cannot maintain a vegetable garden."  José Luis Amayo Urrarillo, from the settlement of La Granja—a community of around 550 families that has occupied its land for 100 years—describes the collapse of agriculture in equally stark terms: "Before, we lived from our harvests: beans, cassava, corn, pumpkin. Today we depend on products from outside. I try to plant corn and the shoots get covered in coal dust; they die." For Mildreth Guetta Uriana, the water crisis is immediate and daily. "Right now the water in my community is contaminated. Before, you could drink from the Ranchería—now you can't. Now, to drink fresh water, we have to wait 15 or 20 days for a truck to bring it. And when the truck arrives, you have to pay."  Under a court-ordered arrangement, Cerrejón is obliged to deliver 500 litres of water to her community every 15 days. "For a family of 10 or 15 people in one house," she says, "that is not enough. We are forced to look for more and buy it out of our own pockets.” Not fit for consumption Matilde Sapuana lives in the Wayúu Indigenous community of Jamiche, La Guajira, Colombia. Sapuana and her entire community are now forced to buy their water by the lorryload, as the spring in their village was blocked up by armed men with a bulldozer. Waste products from the mine are particularly dangerous for the communities. Coal seams contain arsenic bonded with minerals, but when mining exposes them to air and water, oxidation releases the arsenic into the water; this is known as acid mine drainage. Technologies exist to capture and remove arsenic from mine wastewater before it is discharged—so the contamination reaching the river system is not inevitable, but a measure of how that wastewater is treated, or not. Studies by Indepaz found concentrations of heavy metals—zinc, lead, magnesium, and barium—rising sharply at points where the mine discharges wastewater into the river system. In wells supplying the Provincial Reserve, arsenic levels were found at more than twice Colombia's permitted limit.  Keila Paz in the Wayúu indigenous village of Waréwaré, La Guajira, Colombia. The Wayúu indigenous people of La Guajira, Colombia, have faced decades of displacement, contamination and cultural destruction linked to the Cerrejón open-cast coal mine — one of the largest in the world. Communities report polluted water, failing harvests, and chronic respiratory disease, while remaining excluded from the legal recognition that would give them access to basic rights and state services. Photo: Sean Hawkey/WCC Jocelyn Carolina, leader of the Rincón del Cerezo community, describes the visible evidence every day: "Here, if you leave water for a moment, there is coal dust at the bottom. This water is not fit for consumption. When you bathe in it, you can see it on your skin." The health implications of what is in that water are severe and well established. Arsenic is classified as a Group 1 human carcinogen by the International Agency for Research on Cancer. Chronic exposure to arsenic is a risk factor for lung, bladder, and skin cancers. Exposure to lead and cadmium—also found in mine wastewater—is associated with increased risk of cardiovascular disease, coronary heart disease, and chronic kidney disease. Contamination keeps coming Civil rights actions brought by Indigenous communities won favourable decisions from Colombian judges, who found that the respiratory effects children are suffering are caused by the dumping of mining residues. Neither Cerrejón nor the relevant health agencies have complied with those orders. Uriana has watched this process: "With the constitutional court, we have had rulings in favour of the reserve—confirming that there is contamination, confirming that there are illnesses caused by the contamination. But the things it has ordered Cerrejón to do—they do them, but only in their own interest. There is a health post that was ordered by the court—but what good is a health post if there is no nurse to attend to us in an emergency? There is a house-washing programme done once a year—which according to them reduces contamination. But that is a lie. You wash a house every day—and the contamination still keeps coming." Jocelyn Carolina, active Wayúu community leader, standing in for the formal cabildo governor, stands beside an old oil barrel used for collecting water, with an old miners hardhat that's used as a scoop inside. The Wayúu indigenous people of La Guajira, Colombia, have faced decades of displacement, contamination and cultural destruction linked to the Cerrejón open-cast coal mine — one of the largest in the world. Photo: Sean Hawkey/WCC For families living beside the mine, options are grim. People stopped using the Ranchería when they began suffering skin diseases they attribute to mining dust. They are now forced to drill deep wells, which yield often brackish water suitable only for animals, or they buy water delivered by truck. Many Wayúu communities have been left with dry wells, forced to dig deeper into the ground, or to simply buy water they cannot afford. In 2023, President of Colombia Gustavo Petro publicly accused Cerrejón of being partly responsible for the deaths of thousands of Wayúu children from hunger and thirst. Glencore denies that its operations have seriously harmed the water supply. "The way things are going," says Uriana, "our community is slowly being destroyed. It is very painful to see how our elders, the children themselves, are falling sick and dying because of a mine that arrived 40 years ago—only to harm us, only to destroy us, only to use us as a sacrifice zone.” The churches’ complaint in relation to HSBC bank is one example of the implementation of the WCC Hope for Children initiative, catalyzed by children and youth who urged the WCC to make climate justice one of the pillars of the Churches’ Commitments to Children programme. The World Council of Churches is inviting churches, ecumenical partners, and faith-based organizations worldwide to support an open letter backing an OECD complaint submitted by Methodist churches in Colombia, Great Britain, Ireland, and partners concerning HSBC’s financial relationship with Glencore and the Cerrejón coal mine in Colombia. Churches, ecumenical partners, and other organizations wishing to endorse the initiative are invited to sign the Open letter here. Around Colombian coal mine, “people get very ill from the dust” (WCC feature story, 06 August 2026) Indigenous people in Colombia pay—with their lives—for coal (WCC feature story, 22 July 2026) WCC invites churches, communities to support call for responsible finance, climate justice (WCC news release, 10 June 2026) Faith-based groups submit OECD complaint concerning HSBC financing linked to Cerrejón coal mine in Colombia (WCC news release, 05 June 2026) Learn more about the Churches’ Commitments to Children and Climate-Responsible Banking See more

The World Council of Churches promotes Christian unity in faith, witness and service for a just and peaceful world. An ecumenical fellowship of churches founded in 1948, today the WCC brings together 356 Protestant, Orthodox, Anglican and other churches representing more than 580 million Christians in over 120 countries, and works cooperatively with the Roman Catholic Church. The WCC general secretary is Rev. Prof. Dr Jerry Pillay from the Uniting Presbyterian Church in Southern Africa.  Media contact: +41 79 507 6363; www.oikoumene.org/press Our visiting address is: World Council of Churches Chemin du Pommier 42 Kyoto Building Le Grand-Saconnex CH-1218 Switzerland