Northwest of Santiago, a private company is building the first general-use desalination plant that could provide water for drinking, agriculture, and mining. It’s one of many tools aimed at ensuring reliable freshwater for central Chile, says Sebastián Vicuña, a civil engineer at Chile’s Catholic University who researches how the country can adapt to climate change.
Local water utility companies and municipalities are using tactics such as damming a tributary of the Maipo River to store water and trucking in drinking water for those whose wells have run dry.
Models by Vicuña and his colleagues found that the drought should continue into mid-century and reliable drinking water for Santiago will come at the expense of supplying water to farmers. For now, Vicuña says, the glaciers are receding, but “they are still a very reliable supply of water every year, especially during the drought.” If the glaciers do eventually disappear, as is expected, that reserve of water will go with them.
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Sarah Gibbens is a staff writer for National Geographic. Photographer Armando Vega covers cultural and environmental topics.
This story was updated on Tuesday, August 10.
A version of this story appears in the September 2021 issue of National Geographic magazine.
Source link : https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/article/highest-weather-station-in-andes-will-help-search-for-climate-change-answers-perpetual-planet
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Publish date : 2021-04-26 03:00:00
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