Approximate reading time: 3 minutes, 55 seconds
The Alto Maipo project, initiated by the American company AES Gener SA and the Austrian construction company Strabag, is located in the upper basin of the Maipo River, in the commune of San José de Maipo.
According to the Chilean government, “the Alto Maipo hydroelectric project is part of the renewal of the energy matrix based on renewable sources, which in turn allows decarbonization and the consequent protection of the environment, since, without an adequate transition in the energy production, the plans for decarbonization and renewal of the energy matrix would become unviable.”
Specifically, the Alto Maipo Hydroelectric Project (PHAM) is a project characterized as a large-scale run-of-the-river plant located in the Cajón del Maipo, approximately 50 kilometers from Santiago, Chile. The project consists of diverting and capturing most of the waters of the Yeso, Volcán and Colorado rivers – main tributaries of the Maipo River – to lead them through a system of 70 kilometers of tunnels drilled through the mountains, to two caverns. of machines where the turbines and electrical generators would be installed. This diversion of water means subtracting this large amount of water from the Maipo River valley for more than 100 kilometers.
“The Project will use non-consumptive surface water rights, owned by the Owner, during the operation phase, in accordance with what is stated in point 3.8 of Chapter II of the Consolidated Environmental Assessment Report (hereinafter, ICE). Due to the above, there will be no consumption of the water collected in each of the surface channels that will be intervened by the Project, and these waters will be discharged to the Maipo River, downstream of the confluence of this river with the El Manzano estuary, as established. indicated in point 4.2.7 of the Environmental Qualification Resolution (RCA) No. 256/2009” declares the Chilean government.
However, PHAM is dramatically impacting the Maipo River basin, as well as the aquifers in the affected area, putting at risk access to drinking water not only for the inhabitants of Cajón del Maipo but also for the 7 million people who live there. in the Santiago Metropolitan Region. The construction of the PHAM is also affecting the environment irreversibly, with severe consequences for health, ways and quality of life, economic, social and cultural rights of the communities, among others, it is causing an increase in the melting of glaciers. , the increase in drought in the area, not to mention the dire consequences in the environmental impact due to the installation of an intake and a 70 km tunnel to contain the water and create the electricity necessary for the Luchsinger miners.
PHAM has received financing from two multilateral banks, the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and the International Finance Corporation (IFC) of the World Bank, as well as the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) of the US government.
Additionally, the project has loans from national and international commercial banks: Corpbanca, Banco de Crédito e Inversiones, Banco Itaú Chile, Banco del Estado de Chile, KfW Ipex-Bank (Germany), and DNB Bank ASA (Norway).
Currently, the project is stopped: in February of last year, 2023, the construction company Strabag took Alto Maipo to arbitration before the International Chamber of Commerce. This, for withdrawing funds from a letter of credit to, according to the Austrian company in charge of the construction of the Chilean one, “cover its liquidity deficit.” In mid-November, after poor results before the North American justice system, they redoubled their offensive and went to the highest court in New York to request a precautionary measure. The company claims that, for the second time, Alto Maipo is on the “brink of insolvency and bankruptcy” and that if the Supreme Court does not interfere, they could lose millions of dollars. The AES Andes subsidiary has a different version: they point to their counterparty as responsible for collapses in their tunnels and declare that they have the right to access said funds because they did not comply with the established deadlines. In addition, company sources flatly deny a possible bankruptcy.
Gone were the banners, mobilizations and citizen criticism of Alto Maipo. Today, the hydroelectric plant’s main concern is with one of the construction companies behind the project, which, they accuse, would be responsible for various collapses that threaten the start-up of the most important renewable energy plant in Chile. His counterpart, on the other hand, has his own version of events.
While no one will be able to remedy the acceleration of the melting of the glaciers bordering the Cajón del Maipo due to the construction work of the intakes and the dust, no one will remedy the environmental wear and tear of the intakes and the tunnel, no one will remedy the increase in drought due to the theft of water from the Alto Maipo Central to this basin in recent years.
In 2020, the United Nations had already denounced this project: “We express our concern that the Alto Maipo Hydroelectric Project would be negatively affecting the availability of water for human consumption and domestic use in the affected areas, in contexts already severely affected by climate change and the extreme scarcity of water,” the UN rapporteurs declared at the time. “The shortages that both activities would be aggravating would also affect the productive capacity of subsistence agriculture in the affected areas, resulting in violations of the right to food and other rights related to the right to an adequate standard of living. “The fact that the Alto Maipo Hydroelectric Project is being carried out without the due participation of the affected communities, and with significant damage to biodiversity and the environment could also involve the violation of multiple human rights.”
“The Chilean government is failing to meet its international human rights obligations if it prioritizes economic development projects over the human rights to water and health,” said Léo Heller, UN Special Rapporteur on the human rights to water and health. sanitation at that time. In fact, Article 19 No. 24 of the 1980 Constitution provides that the rights of individuals over water, recognized or constituted in accordance with the law, will grant their owners ownership over them. With this, these rights have the protection that the Constitution grants to the right of ownership, which makes them unassailable. Water is, constitutionally in Chile, a private resource. Its ownership does not depend on the owner of the land where it is located.
In Chile, today, three organizations are mainly concentrated to fight against the privatization of the right to water: the Movement for the Defense of Water, Land and Environmental Protection (MODATIMA), the Coordinadora Ciudadana No Alto Maipo (CCNAM), and the Women of the Quintero – Puchuncaví Sacrifice Zone in Resistencia.
Interview with Marcela Mella, spokesperson for the No Alto Maipo Citizen Coordinator (CCNAM).