NEW PATAGONIA FILM: AN ENVIRONMENTAL PERSPECTIVE ON CHILE’S ALTO MAIPO HYDROELECTRIC PROJECT

The Maipo river provides water to all of the 7.1 million residents living in Santiago, Chile. It flows through the Maipo River Valley, sustaining the ecosystem of the Andes mountains and its many small communities along the way. 

Currently, the river is being threatened by the development of the Alto Maipo hydroelectric project, a joint venture between a Chilean mining company and American utility provider that will generate power using the flow of the river, and without building a dam. That may sound promising on the surface, but the project involves redirecting Alto Maipo’s three principal tributaries over 100 kilometres, many of which will be through tunnels bored into the Andes mountains. The start of these tunnels slice through layers of subsurface aquifers that have already begun to leak unfiltered water with high levels of arsenic and other metals, putting workers and water at serious risk of contamination. 

Patagonia’s film Corriendo para Salvar una Cuenca (Run to Save a Watershed) follows trail runner and activist Felipe Cancino as he traces the route of the Alto Maipo pipelines through the Maipo River Valley. Cancino’s run covers 120 kilometres and 5800 metres of elevation gain, while he shares some insight into the environmental changes that will (or have already) come from the Alto Maipo project.

To read more about the project, check out this article from the Santiago Times, as journalist Gemma Contreras uses back door tactics to unearth harsh truths about how the Alto Maipo is endangering the water supply of Santiago’s residents.