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28 July, 2008
Today, in Bogotá, Colombia, civil society and trade unions, led by the ICEM electric utility affiliate Sintraelecol, will mark the 25th anniversary of the Guavio dam disaster in which most of the 200 casualities were temporary labourers. They were buried alive when a pair of massive rock slides, totalling 60,000 cubic yards of earth, fell on them in the evening of 28 July 1983.
The day has been designated as not only a Day of Remembrance by ICEM's Latin America/Caribbean Region, but also as a day to push for full labour rights, including safety and health, for contract and agency workers.
The memorial event and symposium will be held at the Hotel del Parque, 23-24 Carrera 5A, Bogotá, beginning at 14h00.
“Today is a tribute to the casual workers and others who passed away in 1983 while they were constructing one of the most important energy projects in our country,” said ICEM Colombia Coordinator Carlos Bustos. “It is also a call to non-permanent workers and agency staff everywhere to join with labour unions for decent work and a guarantee of protection under established global labour standards.”
Construction of the 820-foot rock-fill dam, the tallest in the Americas, began in August 1981 by Empresa de Energia Electrica de Bogotá, the electric power company of Colombia's capital city. Between the towns of Ubalá and Mámbita, 120 kilometres northeast of Bogotá, the utility had purchased 2,000 estates from landowners in order to build the continent's biggest hydroelectic dam, one that would generate one million kilowatts of power.
In September 1982, a precursor of what was to come occurred when four miners were killed from a rock slide.
During the spring of 1983, when construction was in full swing, heavy rains set in on the the Bocatoma Valley in the department of Cundinamarca.
The US$1.3 billion dam project, on the Guavio River, had the financial support of the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank. March through May, 1983, also saw a 48-day strike by workers against the joint contractors, Rome-headquartered Vianini Lavori Spa and Madrid-based Entrecanles y Tavora. The strike saw the Colombian military called in.
At 10h00 on 28 July, while boring was underway on a power tunnel and a separate water diversion tunnel, eight workers were slightly injured when a massive rock was dislodged and fell inside the adjacent tunnels. A safety alarm drew the attention of the industrial security team, but after inspection, the area was declared safe for work. Meanwhile, rain continued to ravage the Andes mountainside outside.
At 19h00, pipefitters, electrical pump installers, and other skilled workers were leaving the project’s front on buses, their work day complete. Left behind to mine the tunnels overnight were some 100-plus casual labourers, including many teen-age boys.
In the words of one pump installer, who recalls looking back on the worksite from a base camp, the illimination of lights was brilliant. And then seconds later, “the lights went dark.” Some of the workers, along with rescues teams, began hurrying back to the project’s front in buses, only to have a second landslide bury three buses alongside the tunnels.
Buried inside were 138 workers, with another 40 workers crushed to death when the buses they were in became encapsulated by falling rock. Approximately 20 local residents, who were assisting work in one manner or another, also perished inside the tunnels.
The bodies of only one-half of the victims were recovered.
The Guavio dam was finally completed in 1988, two years behind scheduled. In 1997, the Spanish company Endesa purchased the hydro-generating operation.
The ICEM salutes its Colombian affiliate, Sintraelecol, with commemorating the 25th anniversary of a disaster that should never have happened, as well as all Latin American/Caribbean trade unions and NGOs who are participating in today’s event.