Why Small Hydro May Pose a Threat to Chile's Indigenous Communities
Why Small Hydro May Pose a Threat to Chile's Indigenous Communities
In the absence of prior consultation, Chile's indigenous communities are furious over the construction of small-scale dams.
Eight years after Chile agreed to take the concerns of its indigenous peoples into account before implementing new mining, forestry and hydropower projects through a process of prior consultation known as consulta previa, skeptics wonder whether the government really meant what it promised.
Case in point: At least three small-scale dams have sprouted in the same region where construction of a 690-megawatt dam a decade ago displaced a small village of indigenous Pehuenche living on the Chilean side of the Andes, fueling protests at home and abroad.
The smaller dams...
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