A B S T R A C T
This thesis centers on hydropower development and questions its continuing expansion as subsequent ecological and social challenges compound. Connected through the political ecology context, these issues present themselves through hydropower impacts, privatized water management obligations, and social power relations. Although hydropower can be generated in an ecologically unobtrusive and locally beneficial manner, factor dependent, the global trend exposing the contrary to this ideal cannot be ignored. I establish this stance drawing from several realms: hydropower’s global presence, scientific impact analyses of basin alterations, the political and economic influences upon water allocation, human relations with water management, and finally social responses to river development decisions. Like many others, the Chilean government continues to promote hydropower as their dominant “renewable” energy despite contention of this portrayal. This dispute is due not only to river fragmentation ramifications and community degradation, human and other, but also to underlying profit motivations.
I establish the core of this study, which focuses on the numerous strategies social resistance movements utilize in combating hydro developments in Chile, through the semi-structured interviews I conducted there in January 2016. I emphasize the ways in which Chile’s multilayered relationship with hydropower has been built on a privatized platform, solidified by weak environmental legislation and political allegiances to industry, and has ultimately produced integrity issues within its centralized government. The first four case studies I analyze focus on the effectiveness of resistances to hydro developments on the Bío Bío, Futaleufú, Baker, Pascua, and Puelo rivers. These situations serve as a basis on which I establish a more in-depth study of the Maipo River and the ongoing Alto Maipo project. Although the obstacles social resistances face are often case specific, larger trans-regional and international dynamics play important roles throughout. As the Alto Maipo project and other development plans are ongoing, I present conclusions based off of information as current as April 2016. These conclusions reference the Chilean political and private context regarding policy change, small-scale hydro development, causes and consequences of civilian passivity, and potential influences of tourism.