Un Mundo Mejor — March for Water, Life, and Dignity

On 16 September 2025 more than 100,000 people filled the streets of Cuenca to defend Ecuador’s watersheds against extractivist mining. Organisers, water boards, Indigenous nations, and neighbours marched to protect water, land, and the right to design futures grounded in collective care.

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Why We Mobilised

Grass-roots organisations, Indigenous nations, and water boards from Azuay, Cañar, and Morona Santiago converged to demand the suspension of the Loma Larga (Quimsacocha) mining project and other concessions planned for páramo ecosystems. Extractivism jeopardises the headwaters that supply more than 600,000 residents, and communities refuse to see Cuenca’s rivers turned into sacrifice zones.

  • Context: Loma Larga and allied concessions target páramo territories where springs feeding Cuenca and the southern Andes originate.
  • Urgency: Cuenca’s people insist that water for life is non-negotiable; allowing mining would place drinking-water and farming livelihoods at irreparable risk.
  • Commitment: We join neighbours and territorial organisations to defend water, resist extractivism, and cultivate design practices that honour social, environmental, urban, political, and economic justice.
Aerial view of Marcha por el Agua crowds in Cuenca

Voices from the March

Yesterday we showed that Cuenca is a national and international example: we say enough to extractivism. We are tired of watching our environment destroyed to enrich a few, of being used like puppets by companies and governments that ignore environmental, social, urban, political, and economic dimensions. Water is life, and life is not negotiable. #somoselquintorio — Christian Corral


March Gallery

Protest poster in Cuenca
Agua
Crowd assembling before the march in Cuenca
Participants carrying banners supporting water rights
Detail of banner during Cuenca water march
FUERA MINERAS
Community members preparing march signage
Crowd moving past historic architecture with protest flags
People holding water banners in Cuenca march
Yo no tomo oro
Cuenca resiste
Agua es vida
Cuidemos el páramo
Fuera el extractivismo
Wide shot of march showing thousands of participants
No más concesiones
Protesters carrying banners opposing mining projects
Water defenders holding signs calling for life and dignity
Somos el quinto río
Defendamos los ríos
Territorio vivo
Demonstrators raising their hands in solidarity
Evening close to the march route

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Let’s raise awareness about extractive injustices in our cities. If you are organising, researching, or documenting struggles in defence of water and territory, reach out—together we can amplify your story.

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