Important pond in Chile is dying after years of drought

ApproachChile's important pond is dying after years of drought = (Photos+Video+Infographic) = Valparaíso, 22 Mar 2022 (AFP) - Lake Peñuelas was one of the main sources of water supply in the Valparaiso region, in central Chile. But twelve years of low rainfall, culminating in the catastrophic winter of 2021, the driest in the last century, have transformed this pond into almost a desert.At first glance you can see thousands of skeletons of silverside and carp fish, common in this place, where villagers remember that until recently they could extract specimens up to 30 centimeters and more than a kilo in weight.Hundreds of specimens of seagulls, herons, queltehues and jotes try to survive on the very small area where water is still left.According to the latest report by the Valparaiso Sanitary Company (Esval), the volume of Peñuelas - which until recently was the main water reserve of the urban area of the region - reaches only 170,000 cubic meters, which represents 0.2 per cent of its total capacity of 95 million cubic meters.” In reservoirs like Peñuelas, wet years and dry years followed each other, but when you have been below average for 12 years, those reservoirs have no longer had the possibility of filling up again. So, year after year they have lost volume,” James McPhee, director of the Advanced Center for Water Technologies (CAPTA), explains to AFP. Along with Los Aromos, Lake Peñuelas in the Valparaíso region, 120 km west of Santiago, supplies nearly two million inhabitants of this region. - One third of the country's land area at risk - More than 50% of Chile's municipalities, covering 8.5 million people (47.5% of Chile's population) and a third of the national territory (231,056 km2), are under an official water shortage decree. In total, there are 188 communes, in nine of the country's 16 regions: Atacama and Coquimbo, in the north; Valparaíso, Metropolitana, O'Higgins and Maule, in the center, and Los Ríos, Los Lagos and Aysén, in the south, according to data from the General Water Directorate (DGA). reduce the impact of drought on people's lives, such as authorizing extractions of surface or groundwater, distributing water by tankers in rural areas where drought has worsened, and optimizing water consumption in agricultural work.” We cannot make more rain or accumulate more snow to twist our hand to climate change, but we have taken steps to improve water management,” said Cristian Núñez of the DGA. - Another three decades of drought - In the southern hemisphere, central and southern Chile, along with New Zealand and Madagascar, record one-third less rainfall than 40 years ago, according to climate change expert and academic from the University of Santiago, Raúl Cordero. As a result of global warming “it is very likely that hyperarid winters will occur with much more frequently” in these places, this expert warns the AFP.Additionally, in Chile, there is an increase in water consumption in large urban centers.” What has been done so far is a call to conscience and goodwill and that is not enough (...) Somehow we are going to have to be independent from rainfall” for water consumption, with for example, the creation of more desalination plants, adds Cordero.” We must have a wide range and combination of possible options and here are the desalination of seawater, the exploration of aquifers in fractured rock, the reuse of wastewater, wastewater or gray water that can be sources for some uses,” says McPhee.The future is not very auspicious for Lake Peñuelas or other reservoirs, especially in the central part of Chile.” The (rainy) situation is unlikely to improve in the short and long term. We are facing at best, 30 years ahead when rainfall could continue to decline”, concludes Cordero.MSA-PA/DGA/RSR —