It is the home of the Wayuu indigenous tribes. The municipalities with the largest indigenous populations are: Uribia, Manaure and Maicao.
Los Wayuu are an indigenous community that inhabit this region. To this day they are the biggest indigenous group in the Colombian territory. There are approximately 100.000 living in la Guajira, and some others live either in the border between Colombia and Venezuela, or Venezuela itself. The majority of Wayuus that live in la Guajira are located in Uribia, a city which calls itself as the Indigenous capital.
Each small group of Wayuus has a handful of houses that are made of cane and adobe, a construction that could be considered to some extent suitable for a desert zone like this one.
Due to the climate change and the global warming they are facing hard conditions to live. They are going under a severe drought. They have serious problems within the context, from extreme heat to dehydration and no water apart from the salted sea water. It is clear the region’s chronic water shortage.
To show you how critical the situation is, I will share with you a small part of what Stephen Hide experienced while he was eating a goat stew. He is an author posting in The City Paper Bogota – a news website for English speakers.
“When I ask to wash my hands, the restaurant owner offers me a bowl of water that turns out to be the dish-washing bowl. As I plunge my hands in among greasy plates, I ponder how this exchange of bacteria will work, and in whose favour.
The Wayúu’s water crisis is as much about quality as quantity. Not only is there not enough water, but what water there is often gets polluted, causing diarrhea and malnutrition. This, combined with poor hygiene, has triggered a health crisis which has killed thousands of Wayúu in recent years.
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