{"id":76496,"date":"2024-08-17T09:19:04","date_gmt":"2024-08-17T07:19:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/visualjournalism.de\/?post_type=magazin&p=76496"},"modified":"2026-10-09T11:56:22","modified_gmt":"2026-10-09T09:56:22","slug":"water-privatisation-in-chile-a-village-fights-for-its-water","status":"publish","type":"magazin","link":"https:\/\/visualjournalism.de\/en\/magazine\/water\/water-privatisation-in-chile-a-village-fights-for-its-water\/","title":{"rendered":"Water privatisation in Chile: a village fights for its water"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n
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\n\tWater<\/a><\/div>\r\n

\r\n Water privatisation in Chile: a village fights for its water <\/h2>\r\n\r\n
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In hardly any other country is this resource so completely in private hands. In Patagonia, one community is fighting back against the consequences.
\nBy Elena Jaekel, <\/a>Raphael Knipping<\/a> (text), <\/strong>Stella Meyer, Sarah Schneider<\/a> (photos)<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/div>\r\n \r\n

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\u2018The man from Edelays\u00e9n was sweating heavily,\u2019<\/strong> Frannie Parkinson recalls. When she and her partner Crist\u00f3bal Weber McKay attended an information event about the construction of a new hydroelectric plant in Puerto Guadal in the spring of 2019, they immediately became sceptical. \u2018There were lots of questions about the construction plans, and it was clear that what the company was presenting would not match the reality of the project.\u2019 At the time they had no idea that the scheme could split their village.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Frannie, a 35-year-old American from Virginia, and Crist\u00f3bal, a 33-year-old Chilean, have lived for five years in Puerto Guadal, a community of 500 people almost 2,000 kilometres south of Santiago de Chile. The rural village with its colourful huts is wedged between treeless hills and Lago General Carrera, a lake about three and a half times the size of Lake Constance. The glaciers on the horizon beyond the turquoise lake give little hint that this region could see conflicts over water.<\/p>\n\n\n<\/div>\n\n\n

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