Chilean Patagonia is one of the most pristine and least polluted places in the world. Chile is on the verge of making a critical decision about the future of Patagonia. The country is under intense pressure to develop new solutions of how they will meet their power needs and Patagonia has become large target for hydroelectric power schemes. These schemes would destroy Patagonia forever, flooding thousands of acres of wildlife habitat and destroying the natural beauty of this great region.
During the dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet, Chile's fresh-waters became privatized under the Water Code. It defined the country's fresh water resources as "a national good to be used publicly and over which private individuals are given usage rights." This lead to large corporations, especially energy and mining companies, to quickly become interested in Chile's waterways for their hydroelectric dams as well as using the water for mining.
A Spanish Energy Company called Endesa has been methodically moving through Chile developing energy projects in the form of these dams on the scenic and pristine rivers. There has been a large local resistance against the damming of the rivers. The power drawn from the hydroelectric dams wouldn't be used for the towns nearby it would gets transported off to the far away city of Santiago or to the mining projects in northern Chile, where most of the country's water goes. The energy would travel through a series of 1, 400 miles transmission lines and disrupt several national parks and wildlife reserves and sanctuaries. Two studies have been conducted by National Resource Defense Council showing that energy alternatives other than mega-dams can be introduced to help Chile meet its future energy needs.
The Chilean Government required an Environmental Impact Assessment of the dams that are in consideration. Upon completion the government received an insufficient document providing no scientific evidence behind these assessments. The Government officials ordered that the company create a sufficient and accurate EIA of the dams that were going to be built rather than reject the plan entirely because of strict government scrutiny. The failure to complete an accurate and adequate EIA has slowed the construction of the dams past the 2009 start date.
Environmentalists from all over the world are working to help preserve this precious natural land. The Chilean Government is now working on nationalizing the freshwater in the country. This seems like it would be the only way to stop the building of future dams because of the large influence the mining and energy companies seem to have over government officials. It would enable the government to give the deserved protection as well as save these wonderful places from this unsustainable and destructive development.
This issue reminds of the Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze River in China. Due to China's increasing power needs, many major localities and historical sites along the river had to be relocated, or risk being flooded. Even with a large international resistance, China went forward on the construction of the Three Gorges Dam, which was completed in 2007. The environmental losses that Patagonia will incur if these dams are built can never be retrieved, just like when a wetland is lost and 'another' is built. Mankind continues to destroy our natural God-given landscapes and these destructions have clearly caught up with us. The decisions of destroying Patagonia should not be determined by a group of elite government heads but rather by nationalizing the freshwater has the potential of making this resource a shared public good. I hope that the Chilean government makes the proper decision by taking into considering not only the future of it's countries needs, but the global needs of conserving our beautiful landscapes.
ReplyDeleteConversations like this are going on all around the Earth. As nations try to set goals and make plans to meet future needs there seems to be a trend in the dialogue to forget our new and developing technologies. We know enough now about hydroelectric power generation and its total environmental costs to understand that it is unwarranted in comparison with newer technologies. Whether its newer wind, solar, nuclear, or geothermal we have built a large enough body of knowledge about power generation that we can make educated choices for the future. The issue is that power generation is an economic venture and there will be people who try to exploit economic niches. Hopefully we will soon find ourselves in a world where we make decisions about the structure of our society based on rational thinking instead of economic prospect.
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