Catchment Management and Mining Impacts in Arid and Semi-AridSouth America (CAMINAR): Case studies in Peru, Bolivia and Chile

摘要

The FP6 project CAMINAR has the general aim of contributing to the establishment ofpolicy options, management strategies and technologies for the sustainable managementof ecosystems in those river-basins of arid and semi-arid South America which aresubject to impacts from mining. Case studies were carried out to assess the range ofproblems encountered in such catchments, and to critically evaluate the effectiveness ofexisting regulatory strategies for mining in arid/semi-arid areas. The project works in thefollowing demonstrations catchments: the Chili river in Southern Peru, the lakes Poopoand Urn Uru in Western Bolivia and the Elqui river in Northern Chile. In this paper wepresent results from the three case studies. The basin of the lakes Poopo and Um Um (Bolivia) is heavily polluted by abandoned andactive mining operations ranging from informal and cooperative miners to internationalmining companies. Additionally, in this area exists a strong pollution of geologic origindue to the presence of toxic metal-bearing minerals. In the Elqui river basin (Chile), themajor concerns relate to conflicts about water quantities used by mining and agriculture,respectively, as well as contamination risks due to flash floods of abandoned tailingdeposits in El Nino years. In the Chili river basin (Peru), impacts of mining on waterquality and quantity are minor due to good practices. The main pollution in the riveroriginates from untreated sewage from Arequipa city.