Nueva Loja

, Also called Nueva Loja Lago Agrio (although this is officially only the name of the corresponding canton is ), is the capital of the Ecuadorian province of Sucumbios. The city has 43 809 inhabitants ( 2005).

Nueva Loja is located in the center of the province of Sucumbios in northeastern Ecuador, about 20 km south of the border with Colombia. It is the largest city in the Ecuadorian Amazon basin. The city was founded around 1970 as a base for the newly developed oil fields in the area. After drilling in the oil field Lago Agrio I, which was named by workers after the Texaco headquarters in Sour Lake Texas, and the construction of the first pipeline began in 1972, the regular oil production. During this time, by the Ecuadorian government, especially residents of the southern Andean region of Ecuador, in particular the province of Loja, reigned in the drought, assisted in moving to Lago Agrio. From the settlement of the oil workers and the rest of the settlers, the town of Nueva Loja, already in 1979 the capital of the newly created Canton Lago Agrio and 1989 capital of the new province of Sucumbios arose.

Due to the oil production and the colonization of the area originally overgrowing tropical rainforest has suffered or has been destroyed. Area of Nueva Loja has achieved great environmental damage, soil quality has sometimes extremely seriously deteriorated ( soil degradation), especially due to contamination by petroleum or petroleum residues. The living before the oil exploration and settlement in the region of the Cofan indigenous communities have retreated to more remote regions.

0.0925 - 76.869444444444Koordinaten: 0 ° 6 ' N, 76 ° 52 ' W

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