By IANS
Madrid : Several environmental groups have protested a proposed project of Spanish energy giant Endesa S.A. to build five “megadams” in Chile’s portion of Patagonia, saying that hydroelectric plants would destroy important ecosystems.
Patagonia is commonly defined as the southernmost geographic area in the Andes mountains of South America, mostly located in Argentina and partly in Chile.
The organizations say that the project by Spain’s largest electric utility would mean the “beginning of the end of Patagonia,” the world’s second largest of freshwater reserve.
The chief of Chile’s oldest environmental group Codeff, Peter Hartmann said that the project would convert Patagonia “into a type of storehouse or battery for the country,” to supply 3,000 megawatt of power to the industries in Santiago and the northern mining regions.
The project proposed by the firm HydroAysen – a joint venture of Endesa and Chilean firm Colbun – would submerge 59 square km of the Aysen region around the Baker and Pascua Rivers, including a unique forest ecosystem, Codeff said.
In addition, the project, which is awaiting the environmental impact report of the Chilean government, would flood at least part of the Laguna San Rafael and Bernardo O’Higgins national parks and three nature reserves.
Inhabiting those areas, Greenpeace says, are several endangered species of wildcat, deer, fox, Darwin’s frog and many other vulnerable species.
Juan Pablo Orrego, the head of the environment conservation organisation Ecosistema, the vast potentials of solar, geothermal, wind and tidal power sources in Chile have been lying untapped.