LIMA, Peru (AFP) — Fresh off his Oscar win, Leonardo DiCaprio on Monday took to social media to press Peru’s authorities over oil spills sullying indigenous towns in the Amazon basin region.
“3,000 barrels of oil spilled in the Amazon! Act now for indigenous communities & our climate,” DiCaprio tweeted, the day after winning best actor honors for his role in survival epic “The Revenant.”
The tweet linked to a statement from the nonprofit organization Amazon Watch, which said: “At least two devastating oil spills have occurred in the Peruvian Amazon in the last month spilling thousands of barrels of oil into Amazonian rivers.
“Peru’s national oil company is responsible, yet has been unconscionably slow in responding to the disaster and providing clean water, food, and necessary health services to affected indigenous communities.”
The spills are serious concerns because most communities drink from the river, and fish in it. The statement from Amazon Watch calls for a campaign to demand action from the Peruvian government.
Lima had declared a state of emergency in 16 Amazon rainforest communities on Sunday due to oil spills in the northeastern Loreto region.
The measure, announced in the official gazette, lasts for 60 days and comes more than a month after a spill was reported in Imaza district, which has a population of 23,000.
A second spill was reported on February 3 in Morona district, home to 9,000 people.
Residents of both districts are overwhelmingly indigenous people.
The spills were on sections of the Northern Peruvian Oil Pipeline, which moves crude from the jungle over the Andes mountains to refineries through a lengthy route on the northern Peruvian coast.
Built in the 1970s, the pipeline is operated by state oil concern PetroPeru.
In early February, President Ollanta Humala’s government declared a health emergency in the region because the oil had polluted the rivers that provide drinking water to the affected districts.
© 1994-2016 Agence France-Presse