A country that doesn’t own its water? Chile is home to the stunning and world-renowned Andes Mountains, extraordinary Patagonia frontier, and powerful pure rivers, but amazingly, it does not own the rights to much of its own water. When General Augusto Pinochet took power of the country in 1981, he privatized the country’s water rights and sold many of them to Spain. Currently, Chile faces foreign companies bargaining and developing its resources at the cost of people, livelihoods, and ecosystems, all of which once gone, will be gone forever.
Kira Tenney and the New River Academy have been visiting Patagonia, Chile, for years. They discovered that many of its citizens do not know about proposed hydroelectric dams on Patagonia’s rivers or the impacts it will have on the people and wildlands. They’ve organized a grassroots effort to protect Patagonia and educate Chilean citizens, centered around a powerful, groundbreaking documentary being shown in Asheville this week.
The benefit screening of Patagonia Rising: A Frontier Story of Water and Power is at Asheville Brewing and Pizza Company in Asheville, NC on April 26th at 9:00 pm.
If you’ve ever dreamed about visiting a wild and pristine Patagonia, here is your chance to save it.
