23 November 2010 | News | Climate Justice and Energy
Dam-Free Patagonia
Interview with Pamela Diaz of the Citizen Movement Patagonia Without Dams
Length: 02.49
Download: MP3 (1.9 Mb)
Dam megaprojects are gaining ground in Chile under Piñera’s administration. So are the mobilizations to resist them. Real World Radio spoke with Pamela Diaz, member of the Citizen Movement Patagonia Without Dams. This organization together with other allies carried out a mobilization in seven regions of Chile, from Santiago to Coyhaique.
From the 11th region of Aysen, Pamela said the mobilizations against dams being built by transnational corporations in the South of Chile is part of the strategy known as the Council in Defense of the Chilean Patagonia.
She said that since businessman Sebastian Piñera was inaugurated as Chilean President, the water and energy privatization projects have gained ground, despite a recent survey shows that 57 per cent of the country’s population is against it.
Piñera does not seem worried about this. In a recent meeting held with media officers, the President said that “the question [about megadams] is not whether they will be built, but how they are going to be built”.
“It would seem that the rivers have an owner in this country, which is shameful”, said Pamela Diaz.
The groups that oppose hydroelectric dams in Patagonia is broad. It includes environmental organizations, schools and sports clubs. All these groups participated in last weekend’s demonstration.
The website Patagonia Sin Represas has a reflection of the people who resist megadams, about the alternatives that the Chilean state should explore to solve the energy demand: “they should move forward in developing economic, social and environmentally sustainable energy in Chile, as well as changing the conventional pattern and promoting a strong technological innovation and replacing the traditional fuels. This requires an active role of the state”.
About the position adopted by the government when evaluating the projects that affect the environment, Pamela says that government authorities questioned the fact that an installation of a thermoelectric power plant close to a marine reserve in the north of Chile, would affect the aquatic life. The government’s tactics seem to be denying reality.
In response to the community and the public reports, it was decided to suspend the project but if it had not been for the civil action against it, the project would have gone through.
Pamela said the mobilizations will continue.
