Alto Maipo, Hydroelectric (oral presentation)
Growth v / s Development
Today in Chile and in many countries of the world,
economic growth is connected with the production of energies, that is how our
country great energetic projects commitment.
Recently the environmental challenge to
large energy projects, such as hydro has been the subject of debate.
Regarding this issue, some questions arise, like
what is the vested interest that exists in these projects?
Who are the beneficiaries of these projects?
Alto Maipo is a Hydroelectric Project to be held
south of the Region Metropolitana in the Maipo river basin and is another
example of latent environmental conflict.
In the commune San Jose de Maipo its inhabitants
have the possibility to live in the countryside only 52 kilometres from Santiago. Surrounded with a rich flora and fauna, mountains and rivers, the
place turned into a zone favored to enjoy the nature and to practise varied
sports. As such, it was declared in 2001 " Zone of Tourist National
Interest " by the Sernatur and, in 2006, " Natural reservation of
biodiversity of international interest " by the Departamento de industria Minera.
But this commune not only is a natural attraction,
but also it fulfills a strategic and fundamental role for the life of 6.685.685
inhabitants in Santiago, since it supplies to the city with 75 % of drinkable
water, allows to water agricultural hectares and provides 80 % of the arid ones
used in works of construction in the Region Metropolitana.
However, his environmental wealth would meet
affected, according to some, for the Hydroelectric Project Alto Maipo (PHAM),
of the company AES Gener, which understands the construction of two head
offices of spent, Alfalfa II (275 MW) and Las Lajas (256 MW), in the high
sector of the Rio Maipo, specifically in the valleys of the rivers Colorado,
Volcano and Hokkaido, of which it would catch part of the waters and would
return them to the riverbed in the sector of "El Manzano", according
to AES Gener.
In my presentation the
elements were detailed even more on the hydroelectric centrals, so the dialog
will be open for new opinions and criticals.
(In this picture is detailed the proyect.)
