Indigenous and rural communities in Ecuador’s Amazon have condemned an international arbitration ruling that ordered Ecuador to pay more than $220 million to U.S. oil giant Chevron. The sum is to compensate the company for alleged denial of justice in a trial that found Chevron, operating through its predecessor Texaco, guilty of widespread environmental damage in northeastern Ecuador. The Union for People Affected by Texaco’s Oil Operations (UDAPT), which represents six Indigenous nations and 80 communities, said the decision forces the Ecuadorian public to compensate a company after it caused one of the worst environmental disasters in the region’s history. “It is neither appropriate nor fair. Chevron came to Ecuador, took more than $30 billion from the oil it extracted, polluted the Amazon, caused the extinction of peoples and the deaths of hundreds of people from cancer,” the organization wrote in a statement. “The affected communities took the company to court and won, yet now the entire country has to pay.” In 1993, residents in the Lago Agrio oil basin sued Texaco, later acquired by Chevron, for environmental damage caused during its operations from 1964-1992. Ecuadorian courts found the company had opted for a substandard oil waste disposal system, which dumped more than 16 billion gallons (61 billion liters) of toxic water in at least 880 unlined open pits across the Amazon Rainforest. These pools contaminated groundwater, soil and rivers that local communities depended on for drinking, fishing, bathing and more, the rulings said. Oil spills and gas flaring were…This article was originally published on Mongabay

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