With the environmental, political and economic excesses of the Mar Menor and the agro-industry of the Cartagena countryside increasingly exposed, it is shocking to see that this is not an isolated event. On one of the most arid regions of the planet, in the interior desert of the Arequipa region, in Peru, he plans one of the most insane agrarian development projects that intends to mortgage the future of millions of people and degrade, at the same time, ecosystems Andean and Amazonian. This is the Majes-Siguas II mega project that aims to triple the irrigated area by exploiting remote water that is increasingly scarce due to climate change.
As the glaciers, wisely exploited for millennia by ancient cultures and native peoples, provide less and less water, and as rain and snow are increasingly scarce, the project proposes looking out over the Atlantic slope of the Andes and subtracting water from an important tributary of the Amazon, the Apurimac River, and irrigate the arid plains of Majes with it to industrially produce fruit destined for China, the US and Europe.
The environmental footprint cannot be greater. The future of the project, whose works have been commissioned by a company that was Spanish until a few weeks ago, could not be more ominous even in the most benign scenario of climate change.
A great social impact is also to be expected. The diversion of the channel will leave the communities that live along the Apurímac River without enough water to create what has been planned as large farms of almost 400 hectares. Each hectare would be sold at a cost that could range from 5,000 to about 11,000 dollars (4,400 euros to 9,680 euros) if they are auctioned, According to what was declared in January in La República Peruana by the former manager of the Majes project, Fernando Vargas. It is evident that no small farmer in the area would have that capital available, which will force those affected to become hired hands for the large agri-food industries, which would undoubtedly have fewer problems to take over this business. In fact, Peru is already one of the largest exporters of fruit to countries like Spain, as we can see on the shelves of our supermarkets.
But these dreams of wealth could not be more shortsighted. So much so, that the regional authorities of Arequipa have been stopping the project for years despite all the corruption and international economic pressure to give it a free pass.
The situation now is Dantesque, since the compensation claimed for lost profits by the European and North American companies involved is for an amount similar to that involved in carrying out the project. Therefore, whatever he does, Peru is trapped. Their only option is to save the environment and the future of millions of people, since the present, in economic terms, is already sentenced.
The case of the Peruvian desert is not, unfortunately, an isolated case. California’s largest lake, the Salton Sea, larger than the Dead Sea, was also an agrarian miracle in the desert. Except that in that case the madness ended in disaster and now the toxic dust of a rotten salt marsh threatens the lives of many people and the dreams of not only agricultural development but also tourism in this immense and desert space have been abandoned for a long time.
The lake itself arose from a monumental miscalculation in an engineering feat. The Colorado River overflowed its banks in 1905, flooding a massive irrigation canal built to irrigate the rich farmlands of the Imperial Valley. From then on, the great flow would change course, flooding the Saltón plain, flooding farms, homes and more than 1,000 km² of desert, giving rise to a great inland sea supplied by the enormous flow of the Colorado. The farmers had removed the salt from the territory to be able to cultivate, but the blunder not only filled everything with water, but also dragged the salts. The evaporation of the desert concentrated the salts and the agricultural and tourist dream ended.
Sometimes, the abuse of irrigation to maximize plant production under the sun and the heat of the desert leads to the virtual disappearance of an entire sea
Sometimes, the abuse of irrigation to maximize plant production under the sun and the heat of the desert leads to the virtual disappearance of an entire sea, as happened with the Aral sea. The cultivation of cotton elevated to a pharaonic dimension made the fourth largest lake in the world one of the greatest environmental disasters in history.
During the 1960s, the Soviet Union carried out large transfers of water from the Amu Darya and Sir Darya rivers, inflicting a near fatal blow on the Aral Sea. Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan intended to produce a lot of cotton with that water. Then would come the fall of the USSR, and the countries that made it up did not agree, maintaining the bleeding of the lake. The clashes with Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan through which the rivers that fed this inland sea pass, added to weapons tests, industrial projects and fertilizer spills throughout the 20th century, have finished off a sea that barely accounts for 10% of what it was and that now has a high level of contamination. The original ecosystem of the Aral Sea is currently considered collapsed and, of course, everything has been subordinated to the dreams of cotton.
In Spain, the Mar Menor, the largest salt lagoon in Europe, had the misfortune of remaining in an arid area for which there were big plans, including that it be the vegetable garden of Europe. Intensive agriculture plagued with agrochemicals and thoughtless use of water, added to the pollution and degradation caused by mass tourism, have led the Mar Menor to a critical situation. The miracle of the garden in the desert can no longer be sustained and there are complaints and pressure at all levels to abandon industrial agriculture in much of the Cartagena countryside and in the vicinity of the great lagoon.
The list of miracles in the desert does not end, far from it, with the Salton Sea in California, the Mar Menor in Spain or the Aral Sea in the former Soviet Union. In Arequipa, the Majes Siguas II project could still be stopped; the ecological damage does not have the magnitude of those mentioned miracles in the desert, but disaster is surely looming with the tremendous enlargement planned and several times postponed. The demand for water is growing every day around the world and one in three people today do not have enough fresh water for adequate nutrition and minimum health status. The management of water resources in arid zones requires efficiency, good sense and a long-term view.
Will the accelerated climate change bring about the lost wisdom in the management of the arid zones of the planet or will we continue to witness more financial follies that allow the creation of ephemeral and toxic orchards in the middle of the desert?
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