Research on anthropogenic and natural contamination sources in Northern Chile : German-Chile cooperation in scientific research and technological development

Latin America is making efforts to identify the availability of hydroresources, based on surface hydrobalances and hydrogeologieal maps, together with other aspects related to water sciences that will enable the development of several databases to set up future scenarios for regional hydroresource management. In this way according to the policies and strategies decided by each country, a better standard of life could be achieved eventually, based on water as a development factor. In the Antofagasta Region, the II Region of the country, also called Chile's Mining Capital- given the great industrial production of metals (e.g.: copper) and non-metals (e.g.: iodine, lithium carbonate) on which its economic growth is mainly focused and due to the characteristic desert elimate of the zone - the water resources for supporting mining and industrial growth are scarce and, in general, they are located a long way from consumption centres. Renewable resources like fresh or low-salt-content water are extracted mainly to meet the tap water demands of the population, regional agriculture and mines. So this is an area of permanent conflict because of the water distribution and availability for development. These conflicts could worsen given the great industrial development of the region, unless other methods of obtaining tap water (e.g.: sea water desalination) are developed in near future. On the other hand, the continental water in this region, apart from being highly saline, has a great concentration of arsenic (up to 1 mg/I) coming mainly from the many volcanoes - some of which are still active - existing in the Andes and [...