Osorno is a city and commune in southern Chile and capital of Osorno Province in the Los Lagos Region. It had a population of 145,475, as of the 2002 census. It is located 945 kilometres (587 mi) south of the national capital of Santiago, 105 kilometres (65 mi) north of the regional capital of Puerto Montt and 260 kilometres (160 mi) west of the Argentine city of San Carlos de Bariloche, connected via International Route 215 through the Cardenal Antonio Samoré Pass. It is a gateway for land access to the far south regions of Aysén and Magallanes, which would otherwise be accessible only by sea or air from the rest of the country.
Quintero is a Chilean city and commune in Valparaíso Province, in the Valparaíso Region, 30 kilometers north of Valparaíso. The commune spans an area of 147.5 km2 (57 sq mi). It was the first port in the country, created during the expedition of Diego de Almagro. Fundición Ventanas and other heavy industries are located in the commune of Quintero.
Uruguay is the only country in Latin America that has achieved quasi-universal coverage of access to safe drinking water supply and adequate sanitation. Water service quality is considered good, with practically all localities in Uruguay receiving disinfected water on a continuous basis. 70% of wastewater collected by the national utility was treated. Given these achievements, the government's priority is to improve the efficiency of services and to expand access to sewerage, where appropriate, in areas where on-site sanitation is used.
Water supply and sanitation in Chile were once considered efficient and equitable but in 2022 Chile struggled to reliably provide water throughout the country. Chile's water resources have been strained by the Chilean water crisis, which was partially caused by a continuing mega drought that began in 2010, along with an increased demand for agricultural and other commercial interests.
Hierve el Agua is a set of natural travertine rock formations in San Lorenzo Albarradas, Oaxaca, Mexico that resemble cascades of water. The site is located about 70 km east of Oaxaca City, and consists of two rock shelves or cliffs which rise between fifty and ninety metres from the valley below, from which extend nearly white rock formations which look like waterfalls. These formations are created by fresh water springs, whose water is over-saturated with calcium carbonate and other minerals. As the water trickles over the cliffs, the excess minerals are deposited, much in the same manner that stalactites are formed in caves. One of the cliffs, called the "cascada chica" or the Amphitheatre, contains two large artificial pools for swimming as well as a number of small natural pools. One of the artificial pools is very near the edge of the cliff.
The Norte Chico is one of the five natural regions into which CORFO divided continental Chile in 1950. Its northern border is formed by the limit with the Far North, to the west lies the Pacific Ocean, to the east the Andes mountains and Argentina, and to the south the Zona Central natural region. Although from a strictly geographic point of view, this natural region corresponds to the Chilean territory between the rivers Copiapó and Aconcagua, traditionally the Norte Chico refers to the zone comprising the regions of Atacama and Coquimbo. This region was home to the Diaguita people.
Puchuncaví is a town and commune in the Valparaíso Province of central Chile's fifth region of Valparaíso. It spans a coastal area of 299.9 km2 (116 sq mi).
The Petorca River is a river of Chile. The catchment of Petorca River has been the subject of a severe drought the last decades. Lorena Donaire of the environmental organisation Modatima recalls 1985 as the first year Petorca River dried.
Edmundo Jaime Pérez Yoma is a Chilean politician from the Christian Democrat Party of Chile. He was twice the Minister of Defense during the administration of President Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle, and he served as the Minister of the Interior for President Michelle Bachelet's administration.
Petorca is a Chilean town and commune located in the Petorca Province, Valparaíso Region. The commune spans an area of 1,516.6 km2 (586 sq mi). Since 2010 Petorca has been affected by a long-term drought aggravated by poor water administration that have allowed limited water resources go to avocado plantations rather than human settlements.
Through its history, Chile was regularly affected by droughts. In the more arid parts of Chile droughts are produced when there are low amounts of snow accumulation in the Andes. Chilean coastal basins without snow accumulation are particularly vulnerable to drought.
Cristino Alberto Gómez Luciano is a Dominican poet, agronomist, and professor. Author of Ha vuelto el agua, Yo dije el amor, and other books.
Laguna de Aculeo is since 2018 a dried-out lake located in the city of Paine, Maipo Province, Santiago Metropolitan Region, Chile. It featured muddy banks and is surrounded by gently tilting ground. The lake's bottom is largely impermeable limiting its connection to underground aquifers. It classifies as a sediment-dammed lake.
Argentine Water and Sanitation is a state-owned company of Argentina dedicated to supplying the public with running water and sewer services. Created in 2006 after the Government of Argentina rescinded the contract with "Aguas Argentinas", a corporate group that had granted concession during the Carlos Menem's administration in the 1990s. This way, 90% of the company remained under the control of the Ministry of the Interior, Public Works and Housing, later falling into the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Public Works when it was reformed back into its own ministerial portfolio.
The Emilio López Zamora dam, also known as the Ensenada dam, is a dam with a water treatment plant in Ensenada, Baja California, Mexico, on the basin of the Ensenada stream. Its main use is the containment of flash floods, and as a water supply for the city. It was built in 1976 and is administered by Mexico's National Water Commission (CONAGUA).
Verónica del Carmen Vilches Olivares is a Chilean environmental activist focused on issues of water access in the Chilean Province of Petorca, in the Valparaíso Region. Currently, she works as President of a drinking water supply system in San José, located within the municipality of Cabildo. In addition, she is the leader of the Movement for the Defense of Water, Land and the Protection of the Environment (MODATIMA) which seeks to defend the rights of peasants, workers and inhabitants to access water.
Salar Ignorado is a salar in the Andes of Chile's Atacama Region at 4,250 metres (13,940 ft) elevation. Located just south of Cerro Bayo volcano, it comprises 0.7 square kilometres (0.27 sq mi) of salt flats, sand dunes and numerous pools of open water. The waters of Salar Ignorado, unlike these of other salt flats in the central Andes, are acidic owing to the input of sulfuric acid from hydrothermal water and the weathering of volcanic rocks.
Modatima, the “Movement for the Defense of Access to Water, Land and Environmental Protection”, is an organization formed in Chile out of the Province of Petorca. The organization was created in 2010 as a response to increased water scarcity in the region caused by an ongoing drought and alleged water theft by local agribusiness, specifically large-scale avocado farmers. Motadima activists state that their mission is to make visible the conflicts over water in the region at a national scale and bring to light the commodification of water driven by the 1981 Water Code. Motadima has spoken at universities and held demonstrations across the country for their cause.
The Chilean water crisis is a period of extreme water scarcity and drought in Chile that began in 2010 in response to climate change, agricultural practices and the existing policies established in the early 1980s. It is the longest lasting drought experienced in Chile in over 1,000 years.
Rodrigo Mundaca is a Chilean politician and environmental activist. He is currently governor of Valparaíso Region. Mundaca has been director and spokesperson of the environmental organization Modatima. In 2017 he and his partner Verónica Vilches claim to have received death threats for their activism against unfair water extraction by landowners.
