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.)