The duty of the next president, supported by the will of the people, will undoubtedly be to care for biodiversity, but at the same time to improve the ecological conditions of the country. There is a significant increase in pathologies such as Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) and lung cancer in various provinces of the country where electricity generation plant is located, be it internal combustion engines or any technology that uses fuel oil. Contextualizing, we can say that the development of industry and the energy sector has led to an increase in the concentration of certain pollutants in the atmosphere (CO, CO2, PM10, PM2.5, sulfur oxides and hydrocarbons), primarily to a decrease in the concentration in the air. quality. Their presence not only affects the natural environment, but also affects human health. Second, water is also a natural resource affected by pollution, since improper treatment of solid waste and wastewater originating from the same industries reduces the quality of rivers, creating more costs for drinking water companies in every city. In third place is soil pollution due to the use of chemicals that cause serious damage to agricultural ecosystems.

Let’s focus on the first case, that of air pollution. We know that the fuel used by thermal power plants in the country for energy production has a high sulfur content, and if we analyze the reports on gas measurements at the chimney outlets of each power plant, we will see that they poison the earth with the presence of high levels of sulfur and particles, with values ​​that in many cases exceed by more than 30% of the allowed value of the Ecuadorian ecological standard. These reports, mostly semi-annual, are mostly signed by companies contracted through Sercop. State regulations on environmental protection stipulate, for example, that all production plants larger than 100 MW must have a continuous gas measurement system at the exit from the process, in order to confirm that the permitted environmental protection conditions are met. How many factories in the country are compliant with the standard? In addition, Ministerial Agreement 97, special edition of the Official Gazette 387 published on November 4, 2015, states verbatim: “This system will be implemented within a period of up to 4 years from the validity of this regulation. This requirement must be met by both existing and new sources. Considering to that being August 25, 2023, how many plants are in compliance with this standard, which stipulates that systems should be installed by 2019 at the latest?

In the presidential debate, the candidate for the ADN alliance, Daniel Noboa, referred to Transelectric, where he cited problems in the company’s efficiency, but it is also necessary to refer to production, where the inefficiency of operation and maintenance of the plant creates pollution and higher costs for the state, money that is can save for education, health and other needs. (OR)