Before winter arrived, concerns about pollution were already looming in Coyhaique, Chile. The kind that spreads with every breath, seeping through every crack it finds, so small that no wall can stop it. The lungs are its favorite place to stay, triggering disease and immune weakness in anyone who comes into contact with it.

 

It is not an easy issue to deal with. Even more so when it is linked to a productive activity, one that provides employment and work. This is a legitimate aspiration, of course, but it must be reconciled with other fundamental rights.

 

The problem has been dragging on for decades, passing from one government to the next. With measures that have been more or less effective, it is the state as a whole that has failed.

 

When it erupts, every so often, much is said and planned. The spotlight is turned off and the institutions look the other way. Yes, the dilemma is not easy to address. But that does not prevent measures from being taken to attack the root cause: the dominant social model, which allows the maintenance of productive systems with a high impact on the environment and on people's health.

 

Perhaps the small number of people affected does not allow for more drastic measures. The millions who populate Santiago, Valparaíso, or Concepción do not live in these areas when it comes to devising public policies. But even if it were only one family, the violation of human rights such as life and health should not be allowed. It must be challenged by everyone.

 

Working groups come and go. And in the meantime, those who live surrounded by that mixture of oxygen and tiny particles are slowly and daily poisoned. Like a death sentence. Like a conviction.

 

That is why the outrage is understandable. The annoyance. The anger, if you will. But it seems that no questioning is worth anything. Nor is mobilization or discussion.

 

When the air stops doing its job, we have a problem. Adults and especially children (as well as pregnant women and the elderly) are its victims. And worse still, those who do not have the financial means to leave places where it is no longer possible to breathe. And even if they did, why should they leave, in many cases, the home where they have lived their entire lives?

 

A clarification: these lines are not about air pollution in the city of Coyhaique. That pollution that fills the headlines of local media every winter. That pollution that is a mandatory topic of conversation at the dinner table and on social media.

 

These paragraphs refer to Coyhaique, the municipality. And more specifically, to Alto Mañihuales. Where people also get sick from the air (and the soil, and the water, and the food), as they are forced to live with a tailings dam containing almost 6 million tons of mining waste from Minera El Toqui, now owned by Sociedad Minera Pacífico del Sur. Its name is Confluencia, and it has violated multiple regulations. It is an environmental liability that the company, with the consent of the state, refuses to submit to an environmental assessment. An assessment that would allow for quantifying the magnitude of the impact on the health of people and ecosystems and lead to its remediation. Let's look to the future, for sure, but let's take responsibility for the past.

 

Just as people in Coyhaique complain about Santiago, those in Puerto Aysén complain about being very few and very far away. Although not so far, at this point 60 kilometers is a mere stone's throw. Puerto Aysén is even further away.

 

In those lands, it is not particles from inefficient wood burning that circulate in the air. It is heavy metals such as lead, mercury, and arsenic that are spread by the breeze and the gale. This summer, they caused the death of a dozen cattle, and in 2021, the same happened to as many horses. In 2014, it made national headlines due to high concentrations in the blood of residents.

 

Yes, pollution is serious in Coyhaique. But not only in winter. And not only in the city.