Poisoned Ground

Global Witness reports that Veolia has been secretly filming and testing sediment at a Colombian landfill site, finding mercury levels 25 times above safe limits. The report alleges that untreated leachate is being pumped into wetlands that provide drinking water to hundreds of thousands of people in Barrancabermeja. While Veolia denies causality and claims its internal monitoring shows no mercury, expert analysis suggests the company's testing was insufficient. The report also highlights the danger faced by environmental defenders in the region and argues for the strength of the EU Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive to hold such companies accountable.

• Secretly filmed footage shows employees at a Veolia-managed landfill using electric pumps to dump untreated liquid pollutants, known as leachate, into protected Colombian wetlands.
• Sediment samples taken in September 2024 downstream from the dumping sites revealed mercury concentrations of 4.25mg/kg, which is 25 times the safe limit of 0.17mg/kg established by Canadian scientific guidelines.
• The leachate contaminates a hydrographic line including Caño Moncholo and Quebrada El Zarzal, eventually flowing into Ciénaga San Silvestre, a freshwater swamp providing drinking water to 300,000 people.
• Local health concerns include a surge in birth defects, such as babies born without brains and a rare skin condition called Job, which a local pediatrician linked to the landfill.
• Veolia denies the allegations, stating its internal monitoring of surface water, groundwater, soil, and leachates detected no mercury and that its management never authorized the dumping.
• Expert analysis by Source International concluded that Veolia's monitoring was insufficient to rule out the landfill as the source of contamination because it relied on infrequent water tests and soil samples taken from areas with no hydrological connection to the dumping site.
• The region of Santander, where the landfill is located, is identified as the most dangerous region in Colombia for environmental defenders, with 79 defenders killed nationwide in 2023.

APA

Global Witness (n.d.). Poisoned Ground. https://globalwitness.org/en/campaigns/land-and-environmental-defenders/poisoned-ground/

Chicago

Global Witness. Poisoned Ground. n.d. https://globalwitness.org/en/campaigns/land-and-environmental-defenders/poisoned-ground/.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Global Witness |title=Poisoned Ground |url=https://globalwitness.org/en/campaigns/land-and-environmental-defenders/poisoned-ground/ |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{globalwitnessndpoisoned, author = {{Global Witness}}, title = {{Poisoned Ground}}, institution = {Global Witness}, url = {https://globalwitness.org/en/campaigns/land-and-environmental-defenders/poisoned-ground/}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }