tracing water through Sites and sound: Araucanía to antofagasta

January 25, 2024 [2:13pm] (GMT-4)

Water can’t be contained; it’s everywhere and nowhere at the same time.

As we drive away from San Pedro towards Catarpe, this paradox of the water crisis is prominent within empty drainage channels lining the Caracoles and the stacks of plastic bottles outside inns, and restaurants. 

In the dry river bed of the Rio Grande, and the extravagant pools of hotels.

“We will never know the value of water until the well is empty,” reads a bright yellow sign, not too far from where the Rio Grande flows through San Pedro de Atacama. 

The well is empty.

The drainage channels lining the Caracoles are dry, the arid landscape is sprinkled with crystalized salt lining its surface, the sun is at its peak, the sound of water is slowly disappearing. In the Atacama region, the extraction of water is directly linked to the increasingly prevalent practices of lithium and copper mining, depleting and contaminating the natural water resources for the inhabitants of the surrounding towns.