Ecobreves – CHILE:: Defending Water Against Mining Company

By IPS Correspondents and - - Reprint | | Print |

SANTIAGO, Oct 1 2005 (IPS) - Los Caimanes, a small rural community in northern Chile, launched a signature collection campaign to convince the government to prohibit a big mining company from building a reservoir that would contaminate the area's aquifers, the only local source of potable water. The reservoir of Los Pelambres mine would receive 1.7 million tons of toxins, like arsenic, strontium, silicon oxide, chloride, lead and sulfur, above the underground water sources, said Naira Huerta, resident of the community located 280 km north of Santiago.

The region ''suffers prolonged droughts, our streams usually evaporate before they reach us. We resolved the problem when we found the aquifers eight kilometers from our town,'' said Huerta.

Los Pelambres mining belongs to the Luksic Group, the largest business conglomerate in Chile. Los Caimanes residents sent a letter of protest to President Ricardo Lagos, who then delegated it back to the local intendant, the region's top government official.