Deputies joined the lawsuit filed by environmental organizations against the sanitary Aguas Andinas and the company AES Gener (today AES Andes), controller of the Alto Maipo hydroelectric project that according to the plaintiffs puts at risk the supply of drinking water for the Chilean capital.
The legal action, filed in 2019, seeks to annul a contract concluded between both companies that establishes the dumping and conduction of water by the sanitary company towards operations of the energy project, a fact that “moves away from the sole object established by law” (production of drinking water) and “constitutes a parallel business”.
“We must understand that the progress of the Alto Maipo project puts at stake the supply of drinking water for the entire Metropolitan Region. That is, the lives of millions of people are put at risk, once again, only to protect oligarchic interests, which believe they are above the law,” said the elected deputy of Apruebo Dignidad, Camila Musante.
“I am part of this lawsuit because it is urgent to protect the basin of a river that is about to disappear, because no person, company or group of companies can be above the law and because defending land and water is defending our own existence,” he added.
“We consider it unacceptable that, once again, businesses between large economic groups are prioritized over the basic needs of families in the Metropolitan Region and the country. Aguas Andinas has the obligation to use the water it receives solely and exclusively to provide it to the inhabitants of the region,” said the deputy of the Humanist Party, Tomas Hirsch.
“We hope that our letter will be accepted and that water intended for human consumption will never again be used in other activities by the company in charge of the service,” said the parliamentarian.
The Socialist deputy Daniel Melo, also part of the demand for nullity, expressed that “we are facing an unprecedented case where it is intended to use such a scarce good and that we must protect such as the drinking water of the Metropolitan Region, for purposes that are not human consumption, but of a hydroelectric project of which I have been and am very critical”.
2021 closed with the record of being the fourth driest year in Chile since records are kept, a situation that is especially critical in the central zone, where thousands of inhabitants receive water daily thanks to tanker trucks.
The drought, which has now lasted 13 consecutive years, is considered a consequence of the climate crisis, but environmental organizations denounce that the Chilean water management model – whose origin dates back to the neoliberal economy established during the dictatorship – has aggravated it, while the Water Code is already discussed in the Constitutional Convention.
It is worth mentioning that Alto Maipo, due to a compliance plan before the Superintendence of the Environment, had to request a review of its RCA to see how it had modified an environmental variable associated with water bodies. That procedure, despite having concluded, what is appropriate is the review of the appeals.
It is also one of the initiatives that must be submitted to the Committee of Ministers for evaluation and that, according to a note from La Tercera, the government of President Sebastián Piñera defined as one of the priority investment projects for the ministerial delegation led by the Ministry of the Environment, before March 11; when the new administration of the elected President Gabriel Boric takes office.
Alto Maipo successfully completed the synchronization of a second Unit to the National Electric System, by injecting renewable generation from unit 1 of the Las Lajas plant for the first time. The commercial operation of the project is planned for the end of March 2022.
The project belonging to AES Gener (AES Andes since August 2021) and whose entire corporation is held by Inversiones Cachagua Ltda (91.3%)— is subject to review of its Environmental Qualification Resolution (RCA) in line with the provisions of article 25 quinquies of Law 19,300.
Although the Luksic Group initially participated in the project, in 2017 it sold the 40% it had in Alto Maipo through the Los Pelambres mining company.
As detailed by Pulso in October 2021, the initiative went out of budgetary control many years ago. Its total investment amounts to $3.5 billion, but the initial estimate was $2.05 billion. So far, AES Andes will allocate, reported at the end of August, US$ 1,018 million of investment.
A few days ago the governor of the Metropolitan Region Claudio Orrego (DC) called on the authorities, companies and citizens about the water crisis that the country is going through, announcing that a possible rationing of drinking water in the area cannot be ruled out.
Through his Twitter account, the governor wrote that “in the midst of this mega drought and climate change we cannot rule out water rationing for RM this year.” To this he added that “the call is transversal: people, organizations, companies and the State must take care of a resource as valuable and scarce as water.”
In 2011, Aguas Andinas and the Alto Maipo hydroelectric project signed an agreement that aims to prevent the start-up of the hydroelectric plant from conditioning the operation of the El Yeso reservoir and, consequently, the present or future water supply of the city of Santiago. According to the company’s website, “this agreement seeks to prioritize human consumption in Santiago, over other uses.”
“The Agreement regulates the relationship between the water rights that AES Andes and Aguas Andinas have. The former of a non-consumptive nature (hydroelectric generation) and the latter consumptives (human consumption)”. It is also stated that the Alto Maipo hydroelectric project “does not belong to Aguas Andinas, nor has it received water rights from the company.”
And they emphasize that in the agreement it was established that the management of the flow of the El Yeso Reservoir will be the sole responsibility of Aguas Andinas, “which will always be operated in accordance with the requirements of drinking water production that the city has.”
It should be noted that the hydroelectric project considers different power plants and collection points, among which is the one located at the foot of the El Yeso Reservoir.
