[{"bbox": [100, 88, 354, 118], "category": "Section-header", "text": "## 2.2 Problem Analysis"}, {"bbox": [111, 134, 1145, 267], "category": "Text", "text": "Despite its privileged position as one of the best endowed countries in the world in terms of biodiversity and climate variability, including a unique set of ecosystems comprising parts of the Amazon Forest, water-rich barren plains (páramos), parts of the Andean Mountain Range, a coastline that includes dry forests, and the Galápagos archipelago, including an oversized marine reserve; the country faces important environmental and climate change challenges."}, {"bbox": [111, 279, 1145, 412], "category": "Text", "text": "Ecuador is heavily affected by climate change due to: (a) the rise in the sea level; (b) increases in rainfall and precipitation deficits due to intensification of El Niño - Southern Oscillation (ENSO); (c) the loss of glacial surface; (d) impacts on agriculture due to alterations in rainfall; (e) impacts on rural and urban infrastructure due to extreme precipitations; (f) increase of risk factors on vulnerable populations; (g) increase in epidemics exacerbated by climate change; and the (h) erratic levels of water availability."}, {"bbox": [111, 424, 1145, 742], "category": "Text", "text": "In addition, Ecuador is suffering from a large deforestation threat (although there are no clear official data, recent estimates took note of a deforestation rate of more than 70 000 hectares per year). Extractive industries like oil and most recently industrial and artisanal mining development have developed a grown concern in society due to the pollution and related health problems caused by it. Indigenous communities have raised their voices because of water pollution caused by mining. As an example, on 28 January 2022, Ecuador's Heavy Crude Oil Pipeline (known by its Spanish acronym OCP), ruptured, contaminating more than 20,000 square meters of the Cayambe Coca National Park, according to the Ministry of the Environment, Water and Ecological Transition (MAATE). Artisanal gold mining, which is common in Ecuador, uses the process of mercury amalgamation, which causes serious health problems such as neurological disorders. Mercury can also pollute rivers and soils. In June 2022, after weeks of protests by Indigenous peoples, also caused by fuel prices and medicine shortages, CONAIE signed an agreement with the government about 10 key policy reform areas, to limit the further expansion of the oil and mining industries and to ensure the Free, Prior and Informed Consent of Indigenous communities."}, {"bbox": [111, 755, 1145, 1154], "category": "Text", "text": "In terms of relevance for EU action of specific sectors, the water and sanitation sector stands out for various reasons. First, only one third of the population uses safely managed drinking water services in the country. Secondly, the lack of drinking water access is closely linked to chronic child malnutrition. According to UNICEF, chronic child malnutrition affects 27.2% of children under two years of age in Ecuador. It affects approximately 325.000 children in this country. Lastly, water management is also political, and at the centre of the demonstrations that rocked the country in June 2022, less than three years after the previous demonstrations (October 2019). On January 12, 2022, the Constitutional Court declared unconstitutional the Organic Law on Water Resources, Uses and Use of Water of 2014 and its regulations, on the basis of the lawsuit by the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (CONAIE), the largest social organisation in the country. Since May 2022, the Ministry of the Environment, Water and Ecological Transition (MAATE) is leading a participatory process to design a new water law (LOGIRH), which should (a) categorise water as a fundamental human right, on which other rights such as health and food depend, (b) prioritise human and domestic consumption, food sovereignty and the ecological flow, (c) exclude any privatisation of water, and so to be managed exclusively by the public or the community with no privatisation, and (d) give right to prior, free and informed consultation of the communities and towns which may have prospecting and exploiting activities."}, {"bbox": [111, 1165, 1145, 1352], "category": "Text", "text": "According to the Secretaría Técnica Ecuador Crece Sin Desnutrición Infantil (Technical Secretariat Ecuador Grows without Child Malnutrition), 30.6% of children under two in rural areas suffer from child malnutrition (25.4% in urban areas). Boys are more vulnerable than girls (30.8% for males and 23.4% for females); whereas indigenous people are significantly more affected than other nationalities (the prevalence reaches 38.8% for indigenous children, compared with 26.8% for Mestizos, 20.7% for Whites and 17.8% for Afro-Ecuadorians). This fact speaks volumes about the management of water since many indigenous communities live in the highlands, which is the largest source of water generation, other than rivers."}, {"bbox": [111, 1363, 1145, 1550], "category": "Text", "text": "Transport and urban mobility are particularly egregious one from the environmental point of view. There are 2.7 million vehicles in the country (May 2021) mostly fitted with high-polluting engines, with very few non-polluting vehicles in circulation. In 2020, the sales of electric vehicles represented only 105 units whereas the sales of hybrid vehicles represented 1,100 units. As such, the transportation sector represents 45% of the total GHG emissions, as the country's energy infrastructure has nearly no recharging points for electric vehicles (only 54 in the whole country). In terms of public infrastructure, only the city of Cuenca developed the first tram system in the country, using hydro-generated electricity."}, {"bbox": [111, 1561, 1145, 1642], "category": "Text", "text": "The construction sector is another challenging one. The number of buildings built following environmental standards is negligible. As such, the greening of the construction sector was prioritised by the government in 2019 through the Organic Law on Energy Efficiency. The law states that the government will promote \"policies and"}, {"bbox": [1050, 1666, 1157, 1690], "category": "Page-footer", "text": "Page 6 of 29"}]