San Juan’s once-sparkling rivers have shrivelled due to drought and residents in the rugged, western province fear that prospective mining projects in the Andes will make matters worse.<\/p>\n
According to one popular saying, Andean provinces are so arid that fish kick up clouds of dust as they swim through their rivers.<\/p>\n
San Juan Province is no different.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The region, made up of mountains surrounded by a desert steppe, receives just over 100 millimetres of annual rainfall, classifying it as a desert.<\/p>\n
Despite arable land making up just three percent of the territory, it is one of Argentina’s main producers of olive oil, grapes, tomatoes and pistachios.<\/p>\n
But water scarcity means that only about a third of that area can actually be cultivated.<\/p>\n
\u00abThe situation is delicate,\u00bb said Nicol\u00e1s Yanz\u00f3n from his grape, alfalfa and onion seed farm in the town of Media Agua, located 70 kilometres (45 miles) from the provincial capital.<\/p>\n
Like his fellow producers, water rationing prevents Yanz\u00f3n from using more than a third of his land.<\/p>\n
Snowfall and more than 4,000 glaciers feed San Juan’s two main rivers, which provide most of the province’s irrigation water.<\/p>\n
Both waterways have shrunk significantly, however, and their flow rates are at historic lows.<\/p>\n
\u00abWe are in a scenario of permanent scarcity,\u00bb said San Juan Province Production Minister Gustavo Fern\u00e1ndez.<\/p>\n
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‘Chaos’<\/strong><\/p>\n \u00abFrom an environmentalist point of view, this is chaos,\u00bb said Silvio Pastore, a geology professor at the Universidad Nacional de San Juan.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, a new trade is booming: mining.<\/p>\n Although local residents are hopeful about subsequent job prospects, they also voiced concern about the use and treatment of the area’s meagre\u00a0water resources.<\/p>\n Mining ventures could eat into scarce water flows, while nothing will arrive to replenish dam reserves, which are at minimum capacity.<\/p>\n In 2000, the United Nations made projections for the San Juan River \u2013 the province’s main waterway \u2013 under different scenarios of rising temperatures.<\/p>\n Since then, the worst of those models \u00abhas been surpassed by reality,\u00bb argues Pastore, noting that the river’s flow has dropped to almost half its historical average.<\/p>\n Less snowfall caused the decrease, the climate expert said, while high temperatures have transformed any solid snow into its gaseous form.<\/p>\n Northwest Argentina’s glaciers meanwhile have shrunk by 17 percent this past decade, according to glaciologists.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Politicisation<\/strong><\/p>\n Unlike Patagonia’s imposing white walls, San Juan’s glaciers are icy formations covered by sediment, rocks or debris, and almost blend into the mountain itself.<\/p>\n Experts debate the extent of their role in water provision.<\/p>\n Pastore believes that the icy formations \u00abdo not contribute more than 20 percent\u00bb of water flow, even during the most severe droughts.<\/p>\n But glaciologist Juan Pablo Milana says their contribution requires further study.<\/p>\n \u00abThe glacier, when you don’t have snow, gives you two to three times more water,\u00bb he said.<\/p>\n Either way, glaciers entered political debate this year when Argentina’s President Javier Milei amended a law that protects the icy formations.<\/p>\n Environmentalists legally challenged the new regulation, which authorises provincial governments to redefine protected areas as a way to expand mining activity.<\/p>\n Mineral extraction projects looking for copper, lithium and more have proliferated across the Argentine Andes.<\/p>\n These minerals are key to the energy transition, but paradoxically, the water used and glaciers destroyed in the process could worsen the effects of climate change for many local communities.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n ‘Ecocide’<\/strong><\/p>\n Mining requires significantly less water than agriculture, but every drop counts when resources are running so low.<\/p>\n Lawyer and activist Ra\u00fal Ordu\u00f1a was scathingly critical of the government’s environmental policy.<\/p>\n \u00abOur water system is in intensive care, and there are politicians who don’t listen,\u00bb he told AFP in his backyard in the town of Barreal. \u00abWould you have a person who is in intensive care donate blood?\u00bb<\/p>\n Orduna denounced giving water \u2013 a \u00abresource that doesn’t exist\u00bb in San Juan \u2013 to transnational organisations rather than saving it for vital uses.<\/p>\n \u00abThat’s called ecocide,\u00bb he said.<\/p>\n According to Fernandez, \u00abaround 40 percent of the water used in agriculture could be saved\u00bb through public investment in infrastructure and more efficient irrigation methods.<\/p>\n Both the companies involved and the local government claim that the new mining projects will take place under strict environmental standards.<\/p>\n But previous incidents have instilled mistrust. Three toxic spills from a Barrick Gold mine between 2015 and 2017 contaminated provincial rivers to varying degrees.<\/p>\n \u00abThe greatest danger of mining is the lack of oversight,\u00bb said Milana, who believes that \u00abthe state today is completely in the grip of and aligned with the mega-mining companies.\u00bb<\/p>\n Yanz\u00f3n, gazing into the water that has traveled a long way to reach his vineyard, says he doesn’t oppose mining. But he doesn’t think it should come at a cost.<\/p>\n \u00abIf it’s development, it has to be sustainable,\u00bb He said. \u00abBecause if it’s not, then it’s not development.\u00bb<\/p>\n by Tom\u00e1s Viola, AFP<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\nrelated news<\/h6>\n<\/p>\n<\/section>\n