Geopolitics and environment

2 - Identification of a specific problematic situation

STUDENT
Denny Julieth Parada
Code: 1071941325

GROUP
151021_51

TUTORA
Mariana Triana

NATIONAL OPEN AND DISTANCE UNIVERSITY (UNAD).

ECISA: School of Health Sciences.
Geopolitics and environment

October, 2022
General objective.

 Analyze of the health situation for different contexts in the health problems that arise from
the relationship between Geopolitics, Environmental, Determinants in Health and Sustainable
Development.

Specific objective

 Evaluate the environmental problem that allows diagnosing environmental health in

the páramo area of the Guerrero municipality of San Cayetano, Cundinamarca.
 Identify variables and aspects that allow developing the diagnosis from
environmental health, and identify diseases that are being caused by the problem.
 Describe the causes and impacts on the health of the population that is affected by
pollution.
 Activity

Problematic situation:

The Páramo de Guerrero is located in the highlands of the municipalities of Carmen de

Carupa, Tausa, Zipaquirá, Subachoque, Cogua, Pacho, San Cayetano and Susa. It has

an extension of 43,228 hectares, where approximately 4,385 people live. (Source DANE

2005, consolidation 2013) and has been affected by agricultural, livestock and mining

activities.

The Páramo de Guerrero is affected by the expansion of the agricultural frontier mainly

for the implementation of potato crops and livestock activities for milk production.

Additionally, mining activities have also been developed especially for the extraction of

Coal. According to a report from the Comptroller, these activities have generated "loss

of soil fertility, erosion processes, loss of aquifer recharge capacity, loss of endemic

flora and fauna species and finally, the fragmentation of the ecosystem"

The actors involved in the conflict are the farmers producing potatoes, milk, marketers,

producer associations, municipal administrations, the Environmental Authority, control

entities, citizen oversight, environmental leaders, J.A.C, holders of mining titles and the

community that inhabit the villages of Pacho and San Cayetano that are part of the

Páramo de Guerrero.
The affected natural resources are water, soil, flora, and fauna that are part of this

strategic ecosystem for the care and preservation of Water Resources. Its importance

lies in the fact that several sub-basins are born in this area that are part of the Bogotá

River basin and that in turn contribute 15% of the water consumed in the capital. It also

supplies several local and municipal aqueducts that supply water to families that live in

the moor and others from nearby municipalities.

 Contamination with fungicide.

 Degradation, soil erosion.

 Decrease in animal or plant species in the area.

Paramo de Guerrero
Paramo de Guerrero
Paramo de Guerrero
Paramo de Guerrero
Paramo de Guerrero
In addition, in the paramo ecosystems, a large number of rivers are born, which are

fundamental for development and human consumption, as is more specifically the

Páramo de Guerrero which forms the upper part of the hydrographic subzone of the

Bogotá River, made up of the municipalities of Zipaquirá, Tausa and Cogua, for other

study area of this project, where finds the Neusa reservoir with an area of 955 ha,

according to the ANLA (2020) capable of stores 103 million cubic meters of water, its

purpose being to regulate and supply for human consumption, of several village

aqueducts that in short, along with other reservoirs, supply the North of Bogotá, Sopó,
Gachancipá, Tocancipá, Chía and Cajicá and supply a 15% of the aqueduct of the

Bogotá Aqueduct and Sewerage Company.

Diseases caused by this problem:

Aspect Cause Possible Diseases

Mining - Water contamination Parasitic and intestinal

agriculture and surface and underground diseases
Cattle raising. with metals (when the mines are
heavy. abandoned, the
rainwater reacts with rock
exposed causing oxidation
of metal sulfide minerals.
Is reaction releases iron,
aluminum, cadmium
and copper in the water
system environment and
can contaminate water
potable)
Agriculture and Water contamination Parasitic and intestinal
Cattle raising surface and underground diseases.
with chemicals and animal
feces.
Mining air pollution from espiratory diseases such
exposure to high as Pneumoconiosis
concentrations of (sickness of the black lung)
particulate matter (coal - massive fibrosis
dust) and heavy metals. Progressive- Chronic
Bronchitis (EPOC).

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 Mining - Soil contamination by Foodborne illnesses.
agriculture and precipitation of toxic
Cattle raising elements suspended in
emissions atmospheric.

As can be seen, in the box of importance by environmental variables, there are different
scores which are interpreted in a bar graph that denotes the variables of greatest
environmental significance in the Páramo de Guerrero ecosystem.
Each variable is highlighted in the same color indicated in the matrix
Gómez Orea, where the scores are denoted according to importance by the sign,
whether it is negative or negative, positive. For the case under study, the results
indicate that all aspects are harmful.

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Shows the distribution of the Páramo de Guerrero at the Departmental and National.

2
 Conclusions
The development of environmental problems that identify the pressures exerted on the
environment and their relationship with human health, facilitates the understanding of
results that, if the population is involved in them through socialization or dissemination
of the same, contributes to the conservation of ecosystems such as the paramo of the
warrior.

Finally, it was concluded through the instruments previously exposed, that the variables
with the greatest impact on the Páramo de Guerrero in the area from Cogua to San
Cayetano with several municipalities of Cundinamarca, are mining and agriculture,
since it brings effects unrecoverable for the environment and therefore
brings serious effects to the health of the population directly and indirectly involved in
such activities.

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 Referencias Bibliográficas

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 Bermudez, H & Casallas, C. (2016). Evaluación de los procesos socio-ambientales en el

entorno local del pàramo de guerrero 1999-2014. Recuperado de
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 Cortés Paez, J. E., & Rincón Caballero, D. A. (2017). Problemática ambiental generada en la
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 COLPARQUES. (2019). Páramo de guerrero - colparques - paraísos por descubrir en

colombia. Retrieved August 9, 2020, from http://www.colparques.net/GUERRERO
 (N.d.). Retrieved October 10, 2022, from

http://file:///C:/Users/USER/Downloads/GEOPOL%C3%8DTICA%20Y

%20MEDIO%20AMBIENTE/Garz%C3%B3n_Corte_Karen_Mariana_2020.pdf

 Afectación del Páramo de Guerrero por actividades agrícolas y ganaderas en las

veredas que hacen parte de este ecosistema estrategico, en los municipios de Pacho

y San Cayetano. (n.d.). Gov.Co. Retrieved October 10, 2022, from

https://oaica.car.gov.co/vercaso2.php?id=170
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