Chile’s Inter-ministry Committee of Hydro Resources thinks it has the solution for the water shortage problems facing the northern city of Copiapo (Region III).

The Committee, lead by Public Works Minister Sergio Bitar, is exploring placement of a seawater filtration plant in Copiap? – funded by private companies with the help of government concessions. The US$4.5 billion project would offer its services to mining companies and other local businesses.

The plant would produce different grades of water, from drinking water to less-filtered irrigation water. Around 40 percent of the nearby city of Antofagasta’s water supply is already made up of desalinated water.

Business groups such as General Electric, Agbar, and Luksic have shown interest in creating and producing the “factory water.” And some 30 mines are interested in buying into the project, but official negotiations won’t begin until later in the year.

President Michelle Bachelet created the committee, which includes members of Chile’s mining, environment, energy, and economic ministries to name a few. One of its principle objectives is to create a new water resource system for Copiap?. The city is currently “water-challenged” because of competing demands from the area’s mining industry.

More than US$30 billion has been invested in Chile’s northern mining industries, with at least US$8 billion located near Copiap?.

A single coastal water-filtering plant costs US$50 million, said Richard Dixon, waters director for the Hatch engineering company. But if the water needs to be pumped to the Andean foothills, the cost could be more than US$1 billion.

Dixon said that his company has conducted 15 studies in the last three years for the desalination sector in northern Chile.

In spite of the high costs, BHP Billiton’s Escondida copper mine, Chile’s largest private copper mine, is using this technology. Its Puerto Coloso plant processes 3,200 liters of water per second and cost US$3.5 billion.

“Desalinating seawater is a technologically complex alternative and is much more expensive due to the initial investment and energy costs the system would require,” said BHP.

http://www.santiagotimes.cl/santiagotimes/index.php/2009063016570/news/business-news/potable-seawater-slated-for-northern-chile.html

UNICEF Report Prompts Creation Of Guidebook Directed Toward Parents

A new guidebook was distributed last week to educate the public on child labor realities in Chile and the laws that protect them. The guidebook gives special attention to parents – discouraging them to allow their children to work.

UNICEF and FOSIS distribute new manual to fight child labor in Chile.
Photo courtersy of FOSIS

The manual is entitled “Trabajo Infantil, ?d?nde est??” (“Child Labor, Where is it?”) and was published with help from the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and Chile’s Fund for Solidarity and Social Investment (FOSIS). The manual does not intend to stigmatize families with child workers, but rather to find solutions to the families’ labor and economic problems, said UNICEF.

The guide was prompted by a UNICEF and Catholic Church report earlier this month that suggested child labor in Chile is escalating (ST, June 23 ).

Last week’s distribution of the manual began in Santiago’s Estaci?n Central borough. Thousands of guides were also donated to FOSIS’s Puente program, a social outreach program working with 209,500 families living in extreme poverty.

The manual teaches how to detect a possible child labor situation, and then lists tools and resources to find economic solutions so families can abandon that lifestyle.

The launch of the manual counted with the support of many government and public agencies, including Chile’s Planning Minister, Paula Quintra; UNICEF representative, Esperanza Vives; FOSIS Executive Director Pablo Coloma; Estaci?n Central Mayor Rodrigo Delgado; and retired soccer star Iv?n Zamorano, who is Chile’s UNICEF ambassador.

UNICEF representative Vives said that the U.N.’s Convention on the Rights of the Child clearly establishes that boy, girls and adolescents shouldn’t work. “Work is for adults,” she said. “Children should study and have time to do kid things like play, take part in recreational activities, and relax. The world of labor exposes them to dangers and risks that they can’t handle.”

A recent survey conducted by The International Work Organization (OIT) and Chile’s Ministry of Work found that there are 240,000 children and adolescents between five and 17 years old working in Chile. Chilean law allows youths between 15 and 18 years to work in their leisure time. This means they are not allowed to work full time or to support themselves or their families.

The organizations supporting the pamphlet say Chile is following a worldwide trend of increased child labor due to the economic crisis. A recent survey by the OIT and Chile’s Work Ministry reveals that 64 percent of minors who work in Chile belong to the poorest 40 percent of the population. It also found that one in four child laborers has been let back in school and that approximately 40 percent of adolescents who work and study have fallen behind in their school work.

But the Work Ministry’s National Coordinator of Prevention and Eradication of Child Labor, Ximena Larra?n, contends that child labor in Chile is diminishing and that the country is ahead of the game in Latin America.

The most common jobs for adolescents are bagging groceries in supermarkets, street jobs such as selling small goods, or washing cars. Many minors also work in warehouses and in the mining and fishing industries throughout the country.

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CALAMA, Chile – Codelco, the world’s largest copper producer, plans to open the bidding in August for construction of Latin America’s largest wind farm in Calama, a town in northern Chile, the company’s projects manager, Jorge Misle, said.

The $700 million facility will have a maximum generating capacity of 250 MW and provide 60 MW of electricity available for sale.

The wind farm in Calama, located 1,534 kilometers (953 miles) north of Santiago, will provide electricity to the nearby Chuquicamata complex, the largest strip mine in the world.

The energy facility will have 125 turbines, with the capacity to produce 2.3 MW each, spread out over a 4,000-hectare (9,876-acre) desert parcel.

The wind farm will have two electric substations and 17 kilometers (10.5 miles) of transmission lines.

State-owned Codelco expects the bidding, which will be open until the end of the year once it begins, to draw about 100 renewable energy companies, mainly from Europe, as was the case with a similar $86 million project at the Gaby mine.

The wind farm will provide electricity to the Sistema Interconectado del Norte Grande, the utility that supplies Codelco’s North Division, which includes the company’s largest mines, such as Chuquicamata and Radomiro Tomic, and is considered the “biggest mining district in the world,” Misle said.

“This is something new for a company that is not an electric company to develop a project like this and put it out to bidding by foreign companies,” the Codelco executive said.

“The goal of this project, which could start operating within three years, is not to reduce the energy costs of Codelco’s North Division, but instead to respond to the government’s strategy of expanding the energy mix by incorporating renewable energies,” Misle said.

Codelco’s North Division currently gets the 400 MW of electricity it consumes from coal-burning plants, while there is increasing demand in foreign markets for copper produced using clean energy sources, Misle said.

http://www.laht.com/article.asp?CategoryId=14094&ArticleId=338095

Chilean Woman Are Reducing Their Alcohol Intake

Chilean women are drinking less. In the last two years, consumption of alcohol amongst women has fallen by a fifth.

According to a recent study of drug use by National Council for the Control of Drugs (CONACE), the number of occasional drinkers amongst women between the ages of 12 and 64 fell from 50.5 percent in 2006, to 39.9 percent in 2008. An occasional drinker was defined as someone who consumed one or more alcoholic drinks in the past month.

The study confirmed a break in the general pattern of the past 14 years, which had seen a steady rise in alcohol consumption among women.

Here are the study results according to age groups: 12-18 year-old young women showed the slightest decline, of 7 percent; 26-34 year olds decreased their consumption by 8.5 percent; and 35-44 year olds reduced their drinking by 16 percent.

The study also found that 9 percent of Chilean women have an alcohol dependency problem. And although men make up 60 percent of those suffering from alcohol addiction, women suffer greater prejudice when they admit to having a problem with alcohol.

According to Daniel Seijas – a psychiatrist at the Las Condes Dependency Program – the decline in alcohol consumption among women over 35 relates to the demands of having a job and to a greater concern for health. More women are doing paid work, said Seijas, and “it’s proven that having a job is a major preventative factor against the consumption of alcohol among women.”

Other experts have their explanations for the drop-off in female drinkers. Maria Teresa Chadwick, director of CONACE, believes the current economic crisis was a factor in the phenomenon. “Woman who drink alcohol occasionally are more conscious that they can give up a glass of wine for the sake of protecting family finances,” she said.

In general, women above 35 are also more preoccupied with health issues. And more women are also having babies later in life.

“The majority don’t drink alcohol while they are pregnant,” said Seijas. “And a woman who stops drinking during pregnancy and breast-feeding starts a prolonged period of abstinence that provides health benefits.” Seijas also said that the presence of children encourages mothers to act responsibly about their health.

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WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama took the occasion of Tuesday’s visit by Chilean counterpart Michelle Bachelet to laud the Andean nation’s economic policies.

The Chilean experience, he said after an Oval Office meeting with Bachelet, “underscore(s) the fact that no matter how big or small the country is, good economic policies can help grow the economy throughout the world.”

Obama called Chile’s approach “an example for all of us that good fiscal policy, good economic policy, ultimately allows for prosperity through good times and bad times.”

The president also said that he would continue to rely on Bachelet for “good counsel in terms of how the United States can continue to build a strong relationship with all of Latin America.”

Asked by a Chilean reporter whether Washington should apologize for “bloody CIA intervention” in the Andean nation, referring to the U.S.-backed military coup that toppled Socialist President Salvador Allende in 1973, Obama replied: “I’m interested in going forward, not looking backward.”

“I think there have been times where we’ve made mistakes,” he said. “But I think that what is important is looking at what our policies are today, and what my administration intends to do in cooperating with the region.”

Michelle Bachelet’s father, an air force general who served in Allende’s Cabinet, died at the hands of Augusto Pinochet’s secret police and the future president was herself detained and tortured before she and her mother were allowed to go into exile.

In subsequent comments to journalists, Bachelet said the Oval Office session highlighted “the importance that President Obama concedes to the region and to Chile, which he has cited as an example of a country that does things well.”

She said that besides agreeing to bilateral cooperation on health matter, she and Obama discussed possible joint energy projects. EFE

http://www.laht.com/article.asp?CategoryId=14094&ArticleId=337877