MUST THE WORLD STARVE TO CONSERVE?
CONFLICTS BETWEEN PROSPERITY AND CONSERVATION
The conflict between the need of
modern development and the protection of the environment is more political and
social than technical, but the equilibrium will not be reached unless we
recognize the true nature of the problem and are willing to achieve a
compromise.
The Fuy river in the Los
Ríos Region 750 km south of Santiago is one of the southern Chilean rivers that
could provide water for the arid northern mining zones. Credit: Marianela
Jarroud/IPS; Image: Tierramerica
PIPING THE WATERS OF SOUTHERN CHILE TO THE THIRSTY
NORTH (from an articly by Marianela Jarroud and Orlando Milesi, in Inter Press News Net, TIERRAMERICA, cited by Above the fold. News
aggregated by www.EnvironmentalHealthNews.org, May 6, 2014)
-
Three private sector initiatives are aimed at carrying water from the rivers in
southern Chile to the arid north of the country by ship or through underwater
or underground pipelines. The objective is to slake the thirst of the mining
industry of this country, the world’s largest producer of copper. Their
argument is compelling: the growing scarcity of water in the north, where the
mining industry is concentrated, is limiting development and could give rise to
social unrest.
Mining is not an industry that can be ignored: it accounts
for 13 percent of Chile’s GDP and 36 percent of national employment.
This long, narrow South American country
has abundant water resources, but they are distributed unequally. While to the
south of Santiago average water availability is more than 10,000 cubic metres
per person per year, to the north of the capital it is less than 800 cubic
metres per person, according to a 2011 study by the World Bank.
Copper mining alone consumes 12,615
litres per second of freshwater, according to the Mining Council.
Aquatacama, a project
of the French companies Vía Marina and Vinci, among others, spent 1.4 million
dollars on a study that proposes transporting water from the mouth of the
Rapel, Maule and Bío Bío rivers in south-central Chile to Arica, 2,500 km away
in the extreme north, through a pipeline under the Pacific ocean. The goal is to supply the mining industry through a
pipeline running from sea level to 4,300 metres altitude.
The country’s main copper deposits are
in the north, near the Atacama desert, the driest place on earth. The lack of
water in that area also affects agriculture and human consumption. Water is
distributed by tanker trucks and families who can afford it purchase bottled
water for cooking and drinking.
Those that oppose the project claim that, the solution to the water crisis
must involve a reduction of the intensity of mining industry investment and a review of the policy for the management
of natural resources.
Those that defend the Project say that a
strict protocol must be followed, like the one being developed by the OECD
[Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development], which is aimed at
improving water management, free of ideologies or preconceived notions about
privatising or nationalising.
This story was originally published by
Latin American newspapers that are part of the Tierramérica network.
Comment from the Blog’s Editor: Once again the clash
occurs between development at the cost of the ecosystem and conservation at the
cost of starvation. Of course, these are two extremes. If it were not for
political stubborness, a midpoint could be found. Indeed, unchecked mining
leads to serious ecological problems: abuse in the use of water, poisoning of
rivers and water sources by uncontrolled dirty effluents, destruction of
glaciers and of natural environment, exhaustion of resources, etc. On the other
hand, vast areas of the world suffer extreme poverty while sitting on top of
unparalleld richness. An intermediate point must be reached. To grant
uncontrolled dominion of public resources and to abuse on social inequality is
certainly something that cannot be tolerated. On the other hand, to oppose
development because of fundamentalist political opposition to capital and
corporations that , if properly controlled, can help fight poverty and bring
some wellbeing to residents, is blindness. Yielding on some individual rights
in favor of public wellbeing is the basis of social equilibrium. The national
authorities democratically elected must be made responsible for devising and
preserving such equilibrium. Mistrust of the politicians that are entrusted
with keeping equilibrium between the different social and economic actors is no
reason to discard projects that, well
done, will bring prosperity and protection
of resources and the environment. Education is the basis for the good selection
between political alternatives. But it is difficult to promote education in a
starving society. Jorge Casale, Editor, www.allorganics21.blogspot.com
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