We have launched on an aggressive campaign to save the Jondachi, and have engaged the local population, as well as saturating the local media. The result has been the formation of a group known as the "Amigos del Rio Jondachi" that has brought together representatives of the local community, owners of restaurants and hotels, and drivers to address the issue. In the next week, this group will become a legalized "citizen watch group" to defend the Jondachi River. A local kichwa musical group composed a song in homage to the Jondachi River, which is getting local airplay on the radios. The Camara de Turismo (chamber of tourism) and the Camara de Comercio (chamber of commerce) have pledged their support to the cause, and the Camara de Turismo is working on a petition from all of their member establishments to reject the La Merced de Jondachi hydroelectric project. This petition will reject the implementation of the project completely, while we are still awaiting a date for the legal hearing for the opposition that was entered last month against allowing the project developer, Termopichincha S.A. have water rights to the La Merced de Jondachi section of river.

The issue has become quite political, and it was revealed that the Provincial Government signed an agreement in February, 2008 to work with Termopichincha S.A. to develop this and other hydro projects on rivers that we paddle in the area. This is an election year, and the Governess is using these projects as the base of her political campaign to promise employment and benefits for the local population.

We have our work cut out for us, but are gaining in support from the local population. We are now working on developing posters and t-shirts for the cause. In July, the ERI will install a real-time stream gauge on the Jondachi to monitor flows and provide solid evidence that the river does not maintain the flows that Termopichincha S.A. claims exist in the river for their project. The hydrologic studies that Termopichincha used for their La Merced de Jondachi project were based on interpolated data from the Quijos River and the Misahualli and single field measurements at monthly intervals. Real-time water data will give us an important edge to our arguments, and boost our credibility.

On other fronts, we recently finished a two-week water quality monitoring campaign with students from the Aquatic Ecology lab from the Universidad de San Francisco de Quito. We now have data from 51 river sites to establish baseline environmental data on water quality and habitat on rivers in the upper Napo River watershed. We will carry out the third and final monitoring campaign in July, and address gravel mining and other impacted sites on local rivers.

Last week, the ERI received the legal report from the government water board authority regarding the hydro project on the Pucuno River, which drains off of the Sumaco Volcano and was suspended in April for not complying with any government permits or regulations. The ERI is now trying to reach consensus from local environmental groups and other organizations on how to appropriately proceed with legal demands.

With the network of groups from Argentina with International Rivers, we are trying to put pressure on the Argentinian government to stop construction on the Coca-Codo Sinclair hydro project on the Quijos River until the project meets the minimum requirements of having definitive plans, updated studies, and an environmental impact study. Argentina has 30% interest in the project, and we have not received a favorable response from Ecuadorian authorities regarding these legal violations.

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