This activist unveils the hidden face of Chile’s avocado production

Brut America

"Can you continue eating avocados which results from the violation of the human right to water?"  Dried-up rivers, children deprived of water… Activist Rodrigo Mundaca tells us about the hidden face of Chile’s avocado production.

Transcript

00:00Is it possible that you continue to consume avocados

00:03that are the result of the violation of the human right to water?

00:06Is it possible that you continue to consume avocados

00:08when there are children who do not know the rivers?

00:10When there are children who, deprived of water, have to leave their communities?

00:13When there are people who, in our territory,

00:16have had to suffer forced environmental migration

00:19precisely because of the deprivation of water?

00:21We don't think so.

00:23And therefore, we also think that it is very important

00:25that you worry about the value chain,

00:27about who are the producers who come with their avocados to their markets.

00:30And if that producer who comes with the avocado to his market

00:33is a producer who has violated the human right to water,

00:36who steals water in our territory,

00:38don't buy it.

00:57In Chile today, there is a private model of water

01:20that is consacrated in the Constitution.

01:22In Chile, stealing water is an administrative fault

01:25that is charged with a fine.

01:27Today, the State of Chile is not able to guarantee

01:30the human right to water,

01:32even though in Chile water is a private property.

01:34That is to say, water in Chile today is bought,

01:37sold or rented.

01:39Today, in our territory, in the province of Petorca,

01:41inside the Valparaíso region, as I have already pointed out,

01:43there is no water in the rivers.

01:45There is no surface drainage of water in the rivers

01:47because all the surface water today

01:49is stored in large avocado plantations.

01:52These avocado plantations today,

01:54as there is no surface water in the rivers,

01:56deepen the subsurface and extract water

01:59at 200 or 300 meters deep.

02:02Therefore, as there is no water in the rivers,

02:05the entire hydrological cycle is fractured.

02:08It doesn't rain in our territories.

02:10And obviously it doesn't rain because

02:12as there is no surface water drainage in the rivers,

02:15the entire hydrological cycle is fractured.

02:18Where do we drink water from?

02:20We drink water mainly from algae trucks.

02:22I understand that in Europe they are called

02:24cistern trucks.

02:26In the most acute situations,

02:28in terms of water deprivation,

02:30even, for the poor and simple,

02:32water deprivation has to meet

02:34its physiological needs in plastic bags.

02:37To live water deprived in a territory like ours,

02:40in the province of Petorca,

02:42but to live water deprived throughout the country,

02:45from Darica to Inacota to Magallanes,

02:47in the entire Chilean territory today,

02:49means that the life of our communities

02:51is completely mortgaged.

02:54And particularly the lives of the youngest,

02:56of the children.

03:15For us, the Climate Change Summit

03:17is a fair of vanities.

03:19It promises what it does not fulfill in its country.

03:22Everyone is committed to reducing

03:24the emission of greenhouse gases

03:26and the extractive industry in our territories

03:28and it remains unalterable.

03:30And European transnationals today

03:32take over the environment,

03:34degrade the environment in our territory.

03:36Transnationals like Suez, of French origin,

03:38take over the water in the country.

03:40Transnationals like Aguas de Barcelona

03:42are in control of the main sanitary water of the country.

03:45Andean water in the metropolitan region, in Santiago.

03:48Today there is a mandate,

03:50and that mandate is to build a new paradigm of development

03:52that is economically viable, without a doubt,

03:54but also socially fair

03:56and ecologically healthier.

03:58And officials like Piñera are directly responsible

04:00for the degradation of the environment

04:02and for compromising the lives of our communities

04:04and our territories, but also European transnationals

04:06who earn money in our territories,

04:08in Latin America,

04:10at the expense of the sacrifice of our communities.

04:12Water depends on the lives of people,

04:14but also on the lives of plants,

04:16the functioning of the ecosystem,

04:18the development of local economies.

04:20Water is a human right,

04:22and cannot continue to be privatized

04:24and commodified in such a remote country

04:26as Chile.

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