In 2009 the Ecuadorian government announced the beginning of the Chone Multi-purpose Project in coastal province of Manabi. This project, first conceived since the late '70s, encompasses several infrastructure works included a dam in the Rio Grande. This latter project would flood some 6,000 ha of farmland and cause the displacement of up to 2,500 peasant families [3]. According to the Ecuadorian government the project is aimed at protecting the city of Chone from flooding. However, comuneros argue that the proposed dam rather than avoiding the periodic floods, it will cause more problems as the ground is not suitable for the construction of any large-scale infrastructure. Moreover, they argue that there are other options more effective and with less social impacts.
According to the Intag Periodico, the floods started due to the shrimp cultivation industry that reduced the inundation safety area of the river. Therefore, in order to reduce damages due to floods, what needs to be regulated and reduced is the extension of the shrimp cultivation. Moreover, the final goal of the dam is also been questioned. According to some, the true final aim is to divert the water to a new oil refinery plant on the coast [5].
As a consequence of the local opposition, in 2011 the government declared the area as a State Security Reserved Area and initiated the expropriation of the affected landholdings. In 2014 relocation happened under violent repression of the opposition by Ecuadorian police [4].
The dam was inaugurated in 2015. Around 81 local families were relocated into the so-called 'comunidades del milenio', some 15 km away from the dam [1]. Some of them initially became supporters of the project, but deep contradictions and shortcomings emerged very soon. Farmland was in fact located some 20 car drive away from the resettlement site and farming itself was directed by the government. Collective monocultures have been implemented and replaced the traditional diverse subsistence farming. According to Boelens et al. 2018 [1], the governmentality of the Chone project had its centre in the "Citizen's revolution Government's strategic deployment of a discourse that associated Chone with economic development, inclusion, participation, and modernization. Established according to official notions of progress, dignity and buen vivir, the discourse simultaneously denounces any opponents as backward and anti-modern people." One of the central tools deployed by the Ecuadorian government to shape the idea of development in the country was the establishment of the public company Ecuador Estratégico (EEEP), in charge of the compensation to affected communities due to water, gas, oil projects.
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