Building Dams to Assuage the Hunger for Electricity: The Chilean Hydro-Aysén Decision

Abstract

There is an evocative image of unspoilt wilderness – untamed and untainted by humankind – to the region shared by Argentina and Chile, known as Patagonia. Unfortunately, both this image and the reality has turned out, both in Chile and world-wide, to be the symbol of the clash between development/ progress and the hunger for energy (electricity) to drive such progress on the one hand, and the conservation of unspoilt land on the other. What is more, this symbol also has a true human face since indigenous (and more often than not minority) communities living off the land, find themselves caught in the middle between these two poles.1 The danger looming over the pristine wilderness of Patagonia, is a proposed hydroelectric project involving the construction of five ‘mega-dams’ – the subject of the Chilean decision to be discussed.