OPINION: Chile prey to nature's unpredictable forces

By Nono Barahona. March 19, 2017


SANTIAGO, Chile.  Highlights of this 2017 summer that still lingers on: seemingly unstoppable wildfires in January and February engulfing mountain trees and brushes against a backdrop of unprecedentedly high temperatures. Cars, parked outside houses, covered in a thin layer of ashes and the air heavy with smoke in some districts of Santiago, Chile's capital. Two foreign planes, one brought from the US and the other from Russia, high in the sky dumping cascades of water and playing a critical role in putting out the blazes ---symbols of hope and reminders that Chile has no defense against nature's unpredictability.

And then, on February 26, when the wildfires had subsided, sudden rains high in the mountains near Santiago left most of the population in the capital without drinking water for nearly two days ---and 3 people dead, and other 19 missing, said Chilean authorities on February 27.

The heavy rains caused landslides that threw mud and stones into Maipo river, the main source of water for the capital, rendering its water undrinkable. Fortunately the rain stopped and the weather switched back to summer sunshine in the following days over the mountain tops ---and drinking water came out of faucets once again in Santiago.

A pattern seemed to be at work here. A pattern that started with the tsunami that hit Chile on February 27, 2010: nature strikes, the government, taken by surprise, reacts slowly (and that's how the government's reaction is perceived by the population) and in the process innocent people die, and the disasters destroy millions worth of property.

This summer will soon be over, and fall and winter loom on the horizon. Will they bring massive snowfalls, floods as never seen before, now that climate change is here to stay? (Just two days ago, on Friday 17, 2017, there were alarming reports in the Chilean press of an electric storm and heavy rains and floods which were wreaking havoc in the northern city of Copiapo).

There is a need to overhaul the agencies that deal with the forces of nature. Maybe they don´t have enough resources, maybe their leaders lack the skills for the job, maybe they lack training. But something needs to be done, because something is not working, as we were reminded just last Sunday, March 12: under a scorching sun and strong winds a wildfire broke out in the hills near Valparaiso, Chile's main port, smoke blocking out the sun over the city, according to eyewitness accounts. When the dust (or the ashes) had settled, 400 hectares of brushes had burned down and 16 houses had been destroyed, a government agency reported. But the real problem was that, again, we felt taken off guard, with no game plan, defenseless in front of nature.