Villa O'Higgins, the start of the Carretera Austral, Aysen region, Chilean Patagonia. We were in the boat that crossed the O'Higgins lake to Villa O'Higgins, the village of the end of the Carretera Austral. During the two and a half hours of crossing, a promotional video of the Aysen region was projected on a large screen. This video was followed by another video, much less professional, showing an event of hundreds of people, horse backing during several days, united behind a slogan: "Patagonia chilena ¡sin represas!" Next to the screen, a photo book, whose title was the same as the slogan, was exponed on a shelf. We looked for the meaning of "represas" in our little pocket dictionary, but it was not there, and we did not pay much attention to it.
The following day, we arrived to Villa O'Higgins, a small wild village at the bottom of a beautiful valley, surrounded by forests and snowy peaks. We found a place to camp in the garden of the hostel El Mosco and we went in the "downtown". To our surprise, we found posters at the Windows of many windows of houses and public buildings echoing the same slogan "Patagonia chilena ¡sin represas!" Back to the hostel, we found the same book as on the boat! This time, we did not contain our curiosity, and we asked Jorge, the owner of the hostel, the meaning of represas. "Dams!" he answered. This was the key to the mystery: the Chilean government plans to build huge dams along 2 rivers in the region. Opposed to this industrial project, most of the local population shows its position by hanging posters against dams: "The Chilean Patagonia without dams."
Without knowing the details of the debate, we continued our journey in an almost unknown region, but so beautiful. Long glacial valleys host beautiful rivers of blue waters full of trouts and saumons. The mountains are almost all crowned with glaciers, which produce many streams and waterfalls like large white ribbons on the shoulders of the mountains. The steep slopes are covered with cold virgin forest, from which came countless cries of exotic birds and croaking frogs. The quiet was king and we felt as absorbed in a cozy nest in this green and pristine nature. Along the road, some small farms offered campsites as well as home-made products, Duch as honey, milk and jam. By staying in one of these properties, we realized that a strong support of the Ministry of Agriculture was allocated to the rural development in agreement with a slogan as an anthem to the region of Aysen: "Aysen, Reserve Life". People are attached to the nature from which they get their resources. It was a real pleasure to return to a rural life that we had left by converting to city lifestyle.
250 km after Villa O'Higgins, we were face to face with the Rio Baker, strongly running at the bottom of a narrow and deep gorge. At this vision, we immediately understood why the Rio Baker was one of the selected sites to develop hydroelectric power: the violent current of the river channeled in a narrow gorge has an unimaginable energy potential. It seemed evident that this site could be used as a source of energy, especially since there are no homes on the slopes of the gorge. So why was there such a popular mobilization against the dams?
We found the response at Coyhaique, capital of the Aysen region, at the headquarters of the NGO “Patagonia sin represas”. We met Daniela, who had full time job for the association. During our interview, Daniela gave us important keys for understanding the problem.
- Chile is facing a major energy crisis, especially Santiago, thus limiting its economic development. The government musts respond in emergency, and the proposed dams are a source of energy at lower cost.
- The key problem is the huge distance between the production site and the consumptions site, i.e. Santiago. To overcome this problem, the project includes the construction of the longest high-voltage line in the world, crossing Chile over 2300 km.
- This line should transport continuous current so that the populations of regions crossed by the line could not benefit from the electricity, produced exclusively to residents of Santiago.
- The proposed high-voltage line should cross 4 national parks and 8 natural reserves. The lines should be hanged by 70 m height pylons and require cutting in the forest over a width of 100m for each line.
It is these high-voltage lines that are the most rejected by the local population. A communication campaign was launched on the theme "the worst image of the country," showing a photo montage of stunning landscapes from a concerned park disfigured by cables and high-voltage lines. This photo montage shows what would happen if the projects are accepted.
The debate generated around the issue of the dams spread beyond the borders of Chile. Indeed, the firms concerned for the development of the dams are European. In response, the institutions that fund the majority of the communication campaigns against dams are also foreigners, including the Natural Resource Defense Council, Greenpeace, and the millionaire Douglas Tompkins, who created the Pumalin natural park, located directly on the path of line.
Beyond the problem of Chile, that international mobilization showed and opened a real social debate by asking the important question: What will be our future? Should we opt for an industrial and economic development on a large scale, or should we favor a local development in line with our environment and sustainable development. While the region of Aysen seems supporting the latter by developing a rural tourism, the Chilean government seems rather opting for the first solution to seek to develop heavy infrastructures at the scale of the country. Another question is whether the national interest, and in priority the capital Santiago, should overpass the right of local people to choose their mode of development? Whatever outcome out of the debate and whatever the final political decision will be, the discussion is the choice of mode of development is opened. 20 or 30 years ago, it would have not been the case and the industrial development would have little opposition. We thus hope that this kind of debate can help the politics to make the right decisions.
