Only 15 years ago, the Petorca River was the soul of the villages settled along its watershed, such as Chincolco, Pedernal, Manuel Montt, or Pedehua. In its vicinities, there were crops of vegetables, tomatoes, potatoes and other vegetables, which made it possible to provide food to some 3,500 families.
Now, the river no longer exists. It no longer flows through its visible bank and the people that live there get their water from wells or through some minuscule streams from the Andes mountain range.
"The water being brought by truck is barely enough for our day to day activities. We lost all of our bean, corn, and onion crops. Now have to spend a lot of money to get what we need from Petorca, and the trip costs $15,000 because we have no bus here", stated Susana Aguilera, who lives near Pedernal.
In less than two decades, the orchards gave way to cacti and a desert landscape. "Peasant family farming here no longer exists. We lost our vegetable crops, our cheese, everything the families grew for consumption and traded is lost. That's why unemployment exceeds 20% and why it is the highest in the region," said the Mayor of Petorca, Gustavo Valdenegro.
This area is one of the most critical within the Region of Valparaiso, one of the sectors where desertification has advanced more strongly. So much so, that more than 50% of its territory is affected by drought: 23 out of its 38 communes have decreed a water scarcity.
Another critical area is the basin of the Aconcagua River, where three of its sections suffer from water shortages. According to Reinaldo Ruiz, presidential delegate for water resources, overexploitation of the water resources in this sector has "completely dried the River on its course towards the coast, in Concón."
El Mercurio newspaper tried to know the opinion of some authority of the Ministry of public works, but their answer was limited to summarizing, in writing, the measures that have been taken in the region. Furthermore, they indicated they were getting ready to construct seven reservoirs. Among them, Las Palmas in Petorca, which will have the capacity to store 50 million m³, which could regulate 5,000 hectares, and that will cost $75 million US dollars.
The government is also getting ready to enlarge the reservoir of Los Aromos in Valparaiso and to construct the delayed reservoir of Puntilla del Viento in the Andes. "There is a problem of location. It is more difficult to build it today than ever before because there are many houses, the road that goes to Mendoza, the railway track. We would have to relocate some 500 families. We are seeing what options we have," added Ruiz.
Other measures include the empowerment of desalination plants: the Government aims to install one to supply water to Petorca and another one to provide water to La Ligua. It also seeks to install plants micro-desalination plants and small reservoirs, such as Santa Rosa and Melon.
To better coordinate and take advantage of the water resource, a shift system which closes its gates so that the water can flow to other regions on the weekends was implemented in the Aconcagua River in January.
Source: economiaynegocios.cl