HidroAysén Blasts Their Way Past Corporate Responsibility

Río Ibañez International Day of Action Against Dams Event
Río Ibañez International Day of Action Against Dams Event
 
 
 

I am back in the Berkeley office of International Rivers after an exceptionally quick trip to Chile, including a whirlwind tour down to the Aysén Region of Patagonia. This trip was a productive and intense round of fact finding, meetings with partners, and media outreach--not to mention a chance to participate in a wonderful International Day of Action event.

Amongst all the things I have brought home with me, including vivid memories of the blue vivid force of the Baker and some great conversations with local people, what I have most brought home is a sensation that Patagonia is getting ready to defend itself from the nefarious intentions of the multinational corporations that promote the damming of the Baker and Pascua rivers.

But first, I want to share a few words about the people of Patagonia who are basically being held under seige by HidroAysén. They are isolated from the rest of the country, and this isolation has left small towns like Cochrane, towns that are right near the sites on the Baker River that are proposed to be dammed, awfully exposed to the heavy-handed tactics of a giant corporation that is intent on profiting from the destruction of a landscape and a way of life.

Río Ibañez Day of Action participant
Río Ibañez Day of Action participant
Just when I needed it most, I got a shot of inspiration from the people who are most facing a drastic change to their style of life. Making it down to the Río Ibañez on a beautiful sunny and windy Patagonia day was a highlight of my trip.

The Río Ibañez, by the way, is a river that is high in the Baker River watershed, a river that the Chilean government has ruled does not have enough water for local residents to draw on for agricultural use, because the water rights belong to ENDESA, the foreign owned company that proposes to dam the rivers of Patagonia.

This type of injustice set the tone for the next shocking discovery - that HidroAysén, although they are without approval for the project, has already gone ahead and begun work on the dams.  This is of course done under the guise of continuing geological studies to respond to the thousands of comments that their insufficient Environmental Impact Assessment generated.

Río Pascua Work Site in January 2008
Río Pascua Work Site in January 2008
This is very similar to what ENDESA did in the Bio Bio. For years they continued with work that involved tunnels and blasting, claiming that it all has to do with understanding the geologic nature of the rock in order to best site the dam.

Our friends in Cochrane took us to a site above the Baker River, which is close to their town, where we could see the opening of the tunnel and the encampment that HidroAysén is managing for carrying out the work.

Interestingly enough, due to the media savviness of our partners with the Consejo de Defensa de la Patagonia, I was given a first-class outlet in order to describe my surprise at discovering the degree of work going forth on both the Baker and Pascua rivers.

Upon returning to Santiago, I was invited to an interview with CNN Chile. I went to their studio thinking that they were going to do a story on the HidroAysén issue, and that they would interview me looking for a sound bite for the story. Instead, they whisked me into their main studio, and I found myself with the very competent Carola Fuentes, who then interviewed me for five minutes on the issue of dams in Patagonia and the incredibly irresponsible behaviour of HidroAysén.

Tunnel Buildiing in the Pascua
Tunnel Buildiing in the Pascua
In the investigative spirit, the very next day CNN Chile invited the general manager of HidroAysén to an interview as well, making for a very interesting set of media items. This series of interviews is an important breakthrough, and the initial CNN Chile interview was possible because of our partners with the Consejo de Defensa de la Patagonia who are demonstrating great agility in communications work.

I encourage folks to take a look at these CNN Chile video clips and distribute them to friends and activist allies--or at least those that speak Spanish. Then, express your outrage at HidroAysén's flagrant disrespect of corporate environmental responsibility by taking part in our ongoing online actions with Home Depot and ENEL. Home Depot is our US target, and we are insisting that they take a stand on this issue (Dam Home Depot Not Patagonia) by refusing to purchase wood from the Matte Group, the main Chilean partner in the Patagonia dam proposals. Our latest internet action is focused on ENEL, the Italian energy multinational that controls more than 90 percent of ENDESA. For those of you who have already written to these companies, now is the time to get more friends involved to tell Home Depot and ENEL to protect Patagonia!

Stay tuned for more blogs in the near future! This was a great trip down to Chile, and we are excited at the high level of coordination that all of the partners of the Consejo de Defensa de la Patagonia are exercising right now in this incredibly important effort to protect one of the planets last truly wild places. I have lots more news to share about how Patagonia is defending itself - La Patagonia Se Defiende!--and how all of you can pitch in to this rapidly growing campaign.

Tell Home Depot to Save Patagonia!

Give ENEL a Headache About Destroying Patagonia!