Timid effort to promote ecotourism impacts less than one percent of water basins in southern Chile and could be recinded by incoming Piñera government

The Ministry of Public Works (MOP) this week denied 30 petitions for  water rights made by electric companies in three rivers in Region X and XI: the Palena River, the Murta River and the Cisnes River.

Government officials said their aim was to keep power companies from buying the water rights to the rivers and building hydroelectric dam projects. Instead, the idea is to promote ecoturism by preserving these river basins.

 

“There are certain river basins that - given their special environmental characteristics - would be destroyed if dam projects were allowed,” said Rodrigo Weisner, head of MOP’s Water Directorate Authority (DGA). He added that the government decree denying the petitions for water rights does not impact water rights already granted and applies to what amounts to about one percent of the southern region’s water basins.

MOP decreed similar development limitations last November for the Cochomó y Petrohue Rivers in Region X.

Electricity companies whose petitions for water rights were rejected by this most recent decree include AES Gener, which had eight petitions denied, including one for 319 cubic meters of water per second in the Palena River; and Sur Electricidad y Energía, which was asking for 494 cubic meters of water per second from the Palena River.

Although water rights in Chile were essentially privatized in 1981 during the military regime of Gen. Augusto Pinochet, Weisner clarified that the government was granted the power to “limit” water rights petitions by an amendment to the Water Code that occurred in 2005.  By limiting such large requests, Weisner confirmed that the government was, in effect, saying “no” to hydro development in these river basins.

"The energy that these projected hydro dams would produce wasn’t sufficient to outweigh the harm that would be caused if the rivers were intervened,” said Weisner, who added that none of the companies denied water rights has complained about the decree. “It is my impression that they value the fact that we have had clear rules on this from the beginning.”

The government spokesman also said that yet another denial of river hydro development rights is expected to be announced later this month. This means that by the end of the Bachelet administration, six river basins in southern Chile’s Regions X and XI will be protected from dam projects as a result of the government decrees.

Weisner said the government’s decision to keep hydro dam development from occurring on these six river basins has been applauded by local and national tourism operators, who now know that ecotourism investments they make in or around these river basins will not be upended by a mammoth dam project. 

Still, Weisner confirmed that the incoming government led by Sebastián Piñera could recind all six decrees and permit dam development to go forward.

Public Works Minister Sergio Bitar, however, has publicly stated his belief that future governments will be disinclined to over-rule the Bachelet government’s decision to perserve these river basins.

SOURCE:  LA TERCERA
By Steve Anderson ( This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it )