Kyle Hepp: Cleaning Up the Rio Mapocho

In most cities near a body of water, riverside, lakeside or oceanfront property is considered prime real estate. In general, having some sort of H20 nearby, contributes to a higher standard of living. This isn’t so in Santiago. People want to live as far away from the brown, muddied waters of the Rio Mapocho as they possibly can. Heaven forbid that any of the toxic water seep into your own backyard — plus, it's just an eyesore.

Part of the reason that the Rio Mapocho is that dirty looking is because it’s literally filled with dirt and debris. The water sources starts in the Andes Mountains and carries dirt downhill with it as it flows when the ice melts at higher elevations. That’s only natural. But, the other part of the reason that the river looks poopy is because it is poopy. The Mapocho is filled with sewage.

Santiaguinos are constantly warning tourists to stay away from bridges, especially when walking alone at night. Criminals can trap you easier there, and if you’re really unlucky, you’ll get thrown into the Mapocho River. Sure, from most places the fall alone could kill you, especially in spots where the river is extremely shallow. But, even if you survive, Chileans joke, you’ll come out of it with a tail or sprouting extra limbs because who knows what kinds of toxins and pollutions you will have absorbed into your system.

There’s one visionary who wants to change all this. I’ve briefly mentioned the project to clean up the Rio Mapocho in a previous post but I think it’s important enough to talk about on its own.

Sebastian Pinera, top businessman in Chile, former presidential candidate and possible future president of the country, has a dream. He wants to make Santiago into the next Venice by cleaning up the river and making it navigable by boat. This would surely lead to a huge surge in tourism and overall make life near the river much more pleasant for residents.

He began talking about this pipe dream when he was a candidate for the presidency of Chile. However, he lost, and with Michelle Bachelet’s victory, my hopes for a poop-free river went out the door. Lucky for me, and everyone else with a sense of smell living in Santiago, COREMA, also knows as La Comisión Regional del Medio Ambiente (Regional Committee of the Environment), passed a bill in June that would provide government funding to clean up the waters of the Mapocho — starting now!

The project has begun already and will be done in approximately a year and a half. However, there's some bad news too. The project to clean up the Mapocho isn't as environmentally sound as it seems. I'll get into details on that with next week's story!

Photos by and courtesy of Kyle Hepp.