The area that will be flooded to build the HidroAysén project’s five dams represents barely 0.05 percent of the Chilean region of Aysén. But it is made up precisely of the valleys where the majority of the population lives, according to local residents.

A resident of Caleta de Tortel on one of the town's distinctive wooden walkways. Credit: Susana Segovia/IPS

In the heart of the southern Patagonia region, in the valleys of the Ñadis River, 45 kilometers south of the town of Cochrane, live 14 families who will have to be relocated because the construction of the Baker 2 hydroelectric dam, one of the five planned by the HidroAysén consortium, will leave the entire area underwater.

Local residents Elisabeth Schindele and Rosendo Sánchez and their two children live on 492 hectares of land, where they raise animals, grow vegetable crops in their family garden, and organise horseback rides to El Saltón on the Baker River. Their closest neighbors are four kilometers away.

According to a survey conducted by the international polling firm Ipsos in late April, 61.5 percent of respondents throughout Chile said they were opposed to the hydroelectric dams. Nevertheless, on May 9, the project was given the green light by the regional authorities – appointed by the Office of the President – after three years of application procedures, without taking into account the 11,000 citizen inputs made during the public consultation process mandated by law.

“We made observations as part of the citizen participation process and have yet to receive any kind of response. We wanted to know what would happen to our community council, our headquarters, our cultural, family and economic ties,” Schindele told Tierramérica.

“If they relocate us separately, this community will be lost, and they’ve made no effort to understand that,” she added.

All 14 families will be forced to move out of the area before the reservoir is flooded, but only those with property titles will be relocated, stressed Schindele. There are workers who have settled here who do not own property but are still part of the way of life on the Baker River, she said.

The five hydroelectric dams will be constructed on the Baker River – which has the highest flow of all of the rivers in Chile – and the Pascua River. Together they will generate 2,700 megawatts of electricity which will be transported along 2,000 kilometers of power lines to the capital, Santiago, and the mining operations in the northern Atacama region.

HidroAysén is a joint venture between Endesa, the Spanish power company acquired by Enel of Italy, and Colbún, owned by the Matte Group of Chile, which together control 70 percent of the Chilean electricity market.

Cochrane is reached by driving north on the highway. A statue of a huemul or South Andean deer in the town square and a wooden condor standing guard on a corner welcome visitors to this town of 3,000 residents, where Teresa Catalán runs a family-owned restaurant.

The daughter of pioneers in the region, Catalán decided to move back to Patagonia with her husband after living for 20 years in the neighboring region of Los Lagos.

“I’ve lived in places where there’s been lots of money and then they become ghost towns, where the stigma of being a bad community is what’s left behind after all that wealth is gone,” she told Tierramérica.

It is estimated that around 5,000 construction workers will descend on the area, along with a similar number attracted by the opportunity to provide services over a period of 10 to 12 years. Local residents fear that this sudden population boom will lead to a sharp rise in crime, prostitution and early pregnancy.

“I’m concerned about the possible rise in teenage pregnancy that could result from the large male population that will be brought here by the project,” Cochrane town council member Tatiana Aguilera told Tierramérica.

Between 1985 and 1987 Endesa constructed a run-of-the-river micro hydro plant to supply electricity to the area’s communities. Although the project involved a much smaller number of workers, it left behind a generation of fatherless children, commented Aguilera.

Cochrane has a public hospital built in 1970 that serves the communities of Villa O’Higgins, Caleta de Tortel, Puerto Bertrand and Puerto Guadal.

But the closest maternity ward is at the hospital in Coyhaique, which is 345 kilometers east of here and takes six or seven hours to reach.

The company is offering to establish a private health care center for its workers, but the public health care system will be responsible for those who come to the area to work in services and other related activities, noted Aguilera.

Other, less tangible impacts are already being felt.

“They have interfered with our culture, and this is reflected in many things that used to be cooperative, volunteer efforts,” said Aguilera.

An example is the community rodeo that used to be organised by local volunteers. Now that HidroAysén is financing the event, all sense of community cooperation has been lost, and participants are paid for taking part.

Caleta de Tortel, the southernmost community in Aysén, is a little fishing village at the mouth of the Baker River, between the North and South Patagonian Icefields and the Pacific Ocean. Instead of streets, the town has wooden walkways that cross canals and estuaries connecting small islands and rugged fjords.

Irma Gruelet is a small business owner who runs a kiosk selling coffee and pastries at the entrance to Caleta de Tortel. Her house is near the school, and while she talks, the voices of children spilling out of class can be heard in the background.

“Not everyone here is unhappy with the project. On the contrary, sometimes people need help, and HidroAysén has given it to them,” she said.

This is the case of Nancy Domínguez. She received financing from the company for a kiosk where she sells candy and crafts to tourists who visit the estuary of the Baker River, which is at risk of periodic flooding as a result of the dams.

“Of course (the dams) cause environmental damages, but for us, older adults with low incomes, this will improve our lives,” said Domínguez.

Radio Santa María, a Catholic radio station in the regional capital, Coyhaique, has been critical of the project. Even before HidroAysén was granted approval to move ahead with the dams, it had already provoked social impacts, journalist Claudia Torres told Tierramérica in one of the station’s broadcasting booths.

The community has been divided between those who have received company money and those who have not, between the “sell-outs” and those who cannot be bought at any price, she commented. “They have not considered the extent of the damage they have caused.”

Michel Mouré, manager of operations at HidroAysén, called suggestions that the people of Aysén are being bought off by the company “an insult.”

The contributions made by the company, from scholarships to support for microenterprises, are part of HidroAysén’s “corporate social responsibility” policy, which represents an opportunity to overcome unemployment and poverty in one of the country’s most neglected areas, he argued.

On May 20, regional council member René Hermosilla Soubelet of the ruling right-wing National Renovation (RN) party declared on Torres’ radio show that “there are people in the RN who are involved with HidroAysén, who receive money from them… I believe those people should immediately disqualify themselves from this process.”

That same day, a fire broke in a house whose owner, a supporter of the dams, blamed “criminals who are taking advantage of the opportunity to divide the region.”

West of Coyhaique, in Puerto Aysén, local residents walk slowly and easily spot people who are not from the area. A record store offers for sale the first CD by a local artist who sings to Patagonia, and a youth group is organising a horseback ride to raise environmental awareness.

For Hugo Díaz, a leader of Wall-Mapu, an activist group opposed to the dams, these are signs of hope. “Every day, more young people are joining this struggle, and these young people can help influence the way their parents think,” he said.

*This story was originally published by Latin American newspapers that are part of the Tierramérica network. Tierramérica is a specialised news service produced by IPS with the backing of the United Nations Development Programme, United Nations Environment Programme and the World Bank.

The effects of the HidroAysén dam project are already being felt in heightened tensions and severed social ties in Chilean Patagonia communities.

A resident of Caleta de Tortel on one of the town’s distinctive wooden walkways. - Susana Segovia/IPS

In the heart of the southern Patagonia region, in the valleys of the Ñadis River, 45 kilometers south of the town of Cochrane, live 14 families who will have to be relocated because the construction of the Baker 2 hydroelectric dam, one of the five planned by the HidroAysén consortium, will leave the entire area underwater.

Local residents Elisabeth Schindele and Rosendo Sánchez and their two children live on 492 hectares of land, where they raise animals, grow vegetable crops in their family garden, and organize horseback rides to El Saltón on the Baker River. Their closest neighbors are four kilometers away.

According to a survey conducted by the international polling firm Ipsos in late April, 61.5 percent of respondents throughout Chile said they were opposed to the hydroelectric dams. Nevertheless, on May 9, the project was given the green light by the regional authorities – appointed by the Office of the President – after three years of application procedures, without taking into account the 11,000 citizen inputs made during the public consultation process mandated by law.

"We made observations as part of the citizen participation process and have yet to receive any kind of response. We wanted to know what would happen to our community council, our headquarters, our cultural, family and economic ties," Schindele told Tierramérica.

"If they relocate us separately, this community will be lost, and they’ve made no effort to understand that," she added.

All 14 families will be forced to move out of the area before the reservoir is flooded, but only those with property titles will be relocated, stressed Schindele. There are workers who have settled here who do not own property but are still part of the way of life on the Baker River, she said.

The five hydroelectric dams will be constructed on the Baker River – which has the highest flow of all of the rivers in Chile – and the Pascua River. Together they will generate 2,700 megawatts of electricity which will be transported along 2,000 kilometers of power lines to the capital, Santiago, and the mining operations in the northern Atacama region.

HidroAysén is a joint venture between Endesa, the Spanish power company acquired by Enel of Italy, and Colbún, owned by the Matte Group of Chile, which together control 70 percent of the Chilean electricity market.

Cochrane is reached by driving north on the highway. A statue of a huemul or South Andean deer in the town square and a wooden condor standing guard on a corner welcome visitors to this town of 3,000 residents, where Teresa Catalán runs a family-owned restaurant.

The daughter of pioneers in the region, Catalán decided to move back to Patagonia with her husband after living for 20 years in the neighboring region of Los Lagos.

"I’ve lived in places where there’s been lots of money and then they become ghost towns, where the stigma of being a bad community is what’s left behind after all that wealth is gone," she told Tierramérica.

It is estimated that around 5,000 construction workers will descend on the area, along with a similar number attracted by the opportunity to provide services over a period of 10 to 12 years. Local residents fear that this sudden population boom will lead to a sharp rise in crime, prostitution and early pregnancy.

"I’m concerned about the possible rise in teenage pregnancy that could result from the large male population that will be brought here by the project," Cochrane town council member Tatiana Aguilera told Tierramérica.

Between 1985 and 1987 Endesa constructed a run-of-the-river micro hydro plant to supply electricity to the area’s communities. Although the project involved a much smaller number of workers, it left behind a generation of fatherless children, commented Aguilera. Cochrane has a public hospital built in 1970 that serves the communities of Villa O'Higgins, Caleta de Tortel, Puerto Bertrand and Puerto Guadal.

But the closest maternity ward is at the hospital in Coyhaique, which is 345 kilometers east of here and takes six or seven hours to reach.

The company is offering to establish a private health care center for its workers, but the public health care system will be responsible for those who come to the area to work in services and other related activities, noted Aguilera.

Other, less tangible impacts are already being felt.

“They have interfered with our culture, and this is reflected in many things that used to be cooperative, volunteer efforts,” said Aguilera.

An example is the community rodeo that used to be organized by local volunteers. Now that HidroAysén is financing the event, all sense of community cooperation has been lost, and participants are paid for taking part.

Caleta de Tortel, the southernmost community in Aysén, is a little fishing village at the mouth of the Baker River, between the North and South Patagonian Icefields and the Pacific Ocean. Instead of streets, the town has wooden walkways that cross canals and estuaries connecting small islands and rugged fjords.

Irma Gruelet is a small business owner who runs a kiosk selling coffee and pastries at the entrance to Caleta de Tortel. Her house is near the school, and while she talks, the voices of children spilling out of class can be heard in the background.

“Not everyone here is unhappy with the project. On the contrary, sometimes people need help, and HidroAysén has given it to them,” she said.

This is the case of Nancy Domínguez. She received financing from the company for a kiosk where she sells candy and crafts to tourists who visit the estuary of the Baker River, which is at risk of periodic flooding as a result of the dams.

"Of course (the dams) cause environmental damages, but for us, older adults with low incomes, this will improve our lives," said Domínguez.

Radio Santa María, a Catholic radio station in the regional capital, Coyhaique, has been critical of the project. Even before HidroAysén was granted approval to move ahead with the dams, it had already provoked social impacts, journalist Claudia Torres told Tierramérica in one of the station’s broadcasting booths.

The community has been divided between those who have received company money and those who have not, between the "sell-outs" and those who cannot be bought at any price, she commented. “They have not considered the extent of the damage they have caused.”

Michel Mouré, manager of operations at HidroAysén, called suggestions that the people of Aysén are being bought off by the company "an insult."

The contributions made by the company, from scholarships to support for microenterprises, are part of HidroAysén's "corporate social responsibility" policy, which represents an opportunity to overcome unemployment and poverty in one of the country's most neglected areas, he argued.

On May 20, regional council member René Hermosilla Soubelet of the ruling right-wing National Renovation (RN) party declared on Torres’ radio show that "there are people in the RN who are involved with HidroAysén, who receive money from them… I believe those people should immediately disqualify themselves from this process."

That same day, a fire broke in a house whose owner, a supporter of the dams, blamed "criminals who are taking advantage of the opportunity to divide the region."

West of Coyhaique, in Puerto Aysén, local residents walk slowly and easily spot people who are not from the area. A record store offers for sale the first CD by a local artist who sings to Patagonia, and a youth group is organizing a horseback ride to raise environmental awareness.

For Hugo Díaz, a leader of Wall-Mapu, an activist group opposed to the dams, these are signs of hope. “Every day, more young people are joining this struggle, and these young people can help influence the way their parents think,” he said.

Environmental approval for the construction of five hydroelectric dams in Chile’s southern Patagonia region has triggered nationwide protests in Chile, giving rise to a citizen’s movement whose focus has gone beyond the question of the dams.

May 9 protest against HidroAysén in the southern city of Temuco. Credit: Chilean Patagonia Defence Council

As many as 80,000 people (40,000 according to the police) took to the streets Friday May 20 through downtown Santiago; 50,000 did so Saturday in the port city of Valparaíso, 120 km north of the capital, where right-wing President Sebastián Piñera was giving his annual state of the nation address; and tens of thousands of demonstrators protested Saturday in 26 other cities.

The protests were the largest seen since dictator General Augusto Pinochet stepped down in 1990 after 17 years in power.

“We want room for participation, to decide on the kind of development that is good for the people of Chile,” Patricio Rodrigo, executive secretary of the Chilean Patagonia Defence Council – an umbrella group of NGOs carrying out the Chilean Patagonia without Dams campaign – told some 5,000 people in Santiago during the demonstration.

The main aim of construction of the dams is to provide electricity for mining corporations operating in northern Chile, more than 2,000 kilometres away, he said.

Sara Larraín, a prominent environmental activist and former presidential candidate, told IPS that the mining companies consume 40 percent of the energy produced in this South American country, and estimated that Chile could reduce power consumption by 25 to 30 percent by adopting energy savings measures, in lighting and engines, for example.

“I’m not referring to engines that don’t exist yet, but to ‘premium’ engines that exist today at competitive prices on the international market,” she said.

Environmentalists say there are barriers to importing non-conventional technologies which, they estimate, could provide up to 30 percent of the country’s energy needs at competitive prices, especially in the areas of geothermal and wind power.

They say the origin of the barriers lies in the “duopoly” made up of Endesa, a Spanish firm acquired by Italy’s Enel utility, and Colbún, part of the Chilean group Matte, which together control 70 percent of the electricity market in Chile.

Endesa and Colbún are partners in HidroAysén, which plans to build five dams on the Pascua and Baker rivers in Patagonia, two of the wildest and most pristine rivers in the world.

Endesa also holds water rights to both rivers, which has also raised the issue of the need to nationalise water, which was privatised during the dictatorship.

The Baker river has the highest flow of all rivers in Chile. And the southern region of Aysén is home to South America’s second-largest lake, General Carrera, which is one of the world’s biggest freshwater reserves.

The controversy that has raged since the project was presented in 2008 was limited until now to local groups and organisations working to defend the Patagonian wilderness.

At the time, the regional authorities objected to a number of aspects of the project, and the National Forestry Corporation (CONAF – the government agency charged with overseeing Chile’s national parks and protecting endangered tree species) rejected it outright because it encroached on protected forested areas and national parks.

But the objections vanished after Piñera – a billionaire investor and former owner of the LAN airline, which was privatised just before Pinochet stepped down – took office in March 2010.

The project earned environmental approval May 9 without taking into account any of the thousands of citizen inputs made during the public consultation process mandated by law.

The authorities who gave it the green light are all confidantes of Piñera, who confirmed his approval of the project Saturday in the Council of Ministers – the last step in the process, which will be challenged in the courts and in international bodies.

Hundreds of 70-metre-tall high voltage towers will be needed to transport the energy northwards from Aysén. The high tension lines will require the clearing of a 100-metre-wide stretch of forest running through six national parks, 11 national reserves, 26 priority conservation sites and 32 private protected areas, leading to the deforestation of a total of 2,000 square kilometres of land.

In addition, communities will need to be relocated for the dams and the power lines.

The power line project is a separate undertaking, which has made environmentalists and others wary, because it is governed by the law on mining permits.

Total investment in the two plans would amount to more than seven billion dollars, and net profits are estimated at over one billion dollars a year.

Critics point to the political and financial efforts to get the dam project approved, including a donation by Endesa of one million euros (1.4 million dollars) to the foundation headed by First Lady Cecilia Morel, as well as donations for relocation and gifts for local residents of the area that would be affected, which comprises 15 percent of the country’s territory but is home to just two percent of the population.

Nancy Domínguez, in the remote fishing village of Caleta Tortel in the Patagonian fjords, is one of the recipients of this largesse: she got financing from the company for a kiosk in which she sells candy and crafts to tourists who visit the area, which is in the estuary of the Baker river and is at risk of periodic flooding as a result of the dams.

“Of course (the dams) cause environmental damages, but for us, older adults with low incomes, this will improve our lives,” Domínguez told IPS.

Michel Mouré, manager of operations at HidroAysén, called suggestions that the people of Aysén are being bought off by the company “an insult.”

Mouré told IPS that the scholarships, t-shirts, footballs, and support for microenterprise and citizen councils are part of HidroAysén’s “business social responsibility” policy.

The project represents an opportunity to overcome high levels of unemployment and poverty in one of the country’s most neglected areas, he argued.

But the Catholic bishop in Aysén, Luis Infanti, told IPS that the company is “buying off people’s consciences” and trying to divide the community between the “defenders” of the area and the “sell-outs.”

If that was the aim, it has apparently failed, because after the May 9 approval of the project by the Environmental Assessment Committee of the region of Aysén, a regional survey showed that more than 60 percent of the population is opposed to the dams and wants the government to pay more attention to the strategic area.

In a survey carried out in April by the international polling firm Ipsos, 61 percent of respondents nationwide said they did not want the dams to be built, a proportion that rose to 65 percent after the environmental approval, according to a poll carried out for the government-aligned La Tercera newspaper.

But according to Larraín, a full 85 percent of the population is opposed to the dams.

In the past few months, HidroAysén has carried out an intense publicity campaign with television spots showing operating rooms suddenly going dark, families numb with cold, food rotting and other drastic or difficult situations that would supposedly occur due to a shortage of energy if the dams were not built.

Piñera said that without the dams, Chile would suffer “a blackout” in less than 10 years.

The government’s response has been to clamp down harshly on the protests, a step justified by the authorities by the need to control small groups of stone-throwing vandals – although tens of thousands of peaceful protesters were attacked with water cannons and tear gas.

A Santiago judge declared illegal the hundreds of arrests of demonstrators in the May 9 protests by police officers who hid their badges. The detainees included a left-wing legislator.

It is still early to calculate the political costs that the crisis will have for a government that has only been in power for just over a year.

But the focus of the demonstrations is spreading to other areas of discontent, like education, health, transportation or high interest rates.

A large part of the opposition centre-left coalition, which governed from 1990 to 2010, is becoming radicalised, apparently reluctant to miss the bandwagon.