World Resources Institute: "For 2040, if things continue as they are, Chile should import water ..."

World Resources Institute: "By 2040, if things continue as they are, Chile should import water ..."

18/07/2017

Wetlands, lagoons and other ecological environments formed around the water have dried up or their levels have dropped considerably ...

According to the international measurement organizations, Chile is one of the ten countries most affected by climate change worldwide, and is diagnosed with water, as both the lack of this resource and its maldistribution is a reality that affects the whole country.

The World Resources Institute, has pointed to Chile as one of the highest places of water stress in the world and predicts that for the 2040, to follow things as they are, Chile should import fresh water to supply the needs of its population.

This may seem science fiction, because it has always lived in the conviction that Chile has plenty of water and has the largest reserves of fresh water in the world, but according to the international organization this is not effective.

The report states that if companies do not make an adequate forecast regarding the use of this resource, if they do not invest in infrastructure or new technologies, if distribution networks are not renewed, if there is no environmental education for water conservation, and if in addition, for the most advisory tasks of water such as mining, do not opt for methods such as massive desalination of seawater, the country will have many problems to supply water. Problems more similar to those of some desertified countries of Africa, or of the Middle East, than to those of Latin America, which is where Chile is supposed to belong to the green map of the region, which apparently is not the case, according to the World Resources Institute.

Felipe Martin, manager of the Chilean company MAS Recursos Naturales, states that this reality is already being felt, with an 20% less rainwater rainfall as a national average in recent years, with some extreme indices such as Valdivia, which is a city of abundant rain and that however to this date has an 60% less rainfall.

Wetlands, lagoons and other ecological environments formed around the water have dried up or have lowered their levels considerably, for which the executive of the Chilean consultant states that it is necessary to advance in systems of artificial infiltration, or water supply so that these different ecological environments are maintained over time and do not disappear.

"We are behind in fifty years"Raises, and states that adaptation policies are lacking, because"what must be done is to adapt the institutional framework to climate change", He assures, and in this regard he informs that a plan is being prepared to create an Undersecretariat to centralize the efforts and initiatives and to coordinate the actions of the different ministries,"especially the Environment", He emphasizes.

Felipe Martin states that one of the measures that should be adopted in the water issue is that when in winter agriculture does not use the resource, it is derived through channels to other destinations where it is most needed.

"We give ourselves the luxury of dumping the 84% of our water resources into the sea"It raises and assures that the amount of water lost in the south, which is the most abundant place in this resource, could be moved to the north, where there is the greatest lack, through pipelines or transfer networks, because"agriculture occupies 70% of water resources, so we must advance in infrastructure, moving water from areas where it no longer occupies others where it is needed", He argues, and ends by saying that this initiative must be accompanied by a large plan for state improvements, since farmers do not have the financing capacity to irrigate during the summer and derive their resources during the winter to other sectors so far away.

Source: Martín Carrillo O. - Blueberries Consulting