Heavy rains in Chile cause closure of some copper mines; overflows in Santiago

Heavy rains in Chile on Friday caused rivers to flood, blocked roads and even forced Codelco, the world’s largest copper producer, to halt some of its mining operations.

work in the mine andean of the company is currently suspended, Codelco said in an emailed response to questions. The El Teniente underground mine continues to operate, although the company has “Preventively halted pit operations and Sewell“, said.

Separately, Anglo American said on Friday that its Los Bronces mine is operating normally for the time being, despite snowfall in the area.

Parts of the center and south of the country are being affected by heavy rains that have closed schools and roads and raised concerns about landslides.

the sanitary Andean Waters, which supplies most of the capital Santiago, has ceased operations at some of its treatment plants due to high sediment content. It currently has reserves to cover the demand in Santiago for the next 24 hours, said the Vice Minister of the Interior, Manuel Monsalveaccording to El Mercury.

The Government has also ordered the evacuation of some urban areas near the river banks.

Rivers of Santiago overflow

The two main rivers of Santiago, the Mapocho and the Maipo, overflowed this Friday in some sectors after two days of heavy rains in central Chile, which forced the closure of roads and the evacuation of 359 people.

The Mapocho crosses the Chilean capital, where about half of the country’s 19 million people live. El Maipo, meanwhile, is Santiago’s main water supplier. Both are born in the Andes mountain range.

The intense rains are the first of the year in this area of ​​Chile and were concentrated in a few hours in places in the mountains and foothills, where snow usually falls.

“This is a complex precipitation front: It is the first big rain of the season and it only occurs in July; we have a structural drought that makes everything more difficult and it is a very intense rain in a very short time”, explained the presidential delegate of the Metropolitan region, Constanza Martínez.

In some areas of the mountains, the amount of rainfall is the highest since 1993, he added.

“We didn’t think it would be that much”

Until recently, the Mapocho was just a trickle of water that ran about 30 km from west to east of Santiago, due to the extensive drought that hit central Chile a decade ago.

It even registered a water deficit of 89% compared to its historical average, according to official estimates.

But after the fall of 150 mm in sectors of the foothills in the last hours, the river bed grew strongly and the water overflowed in several sectors that were flooded.

The Maipo, meanwhile, saw its flow increased 10 times in the last hours.

“In the foothills it has rained in a day and a half all that it rained last year in Santiago”, said the governor of the city Claudio Orrego, in a last report of the climatic situation by the authorities.

At the height of the Pudahuel neighborhood, the authorities ordered the closure of the route that connects Santiago with the city of Valparaíso, because the water covered the highway. In the sector, tons of garbage dragged by the Mapocho River accumulated.

The last major overflow of the Mapocho dates back to 2016.

In the south of Santiago, the Maipo is the main river in the metropolitan region and also presented a significant increase in its flow, with an overflow at the height of the Molocotón sector.

“We were incredulous, we didn’t think it would be so much” whatever it rained, told AFP Loreto Ochoa, 38, who was evacuated from her home by the authorities overnight.

This independent worker remembers that in the 80s “It was normal” seeing the flow of the Maipo River so increased during the winter but that for many years he does not remember having seen it rain so intensely.

Evacuations and closed routes

The heavy rain that fell in the south-central zone of Chile on Friday left several towns evacuated due to the threat of floods, blocked routes and mighty rivers where until a few weeks ago hardly any water flowed after years of severe drought.

The inhabitants of the capital Santiago, under heavy rain since the previous day, were surprised on Friday by a robust mass of brown water flowing down the bed of the Mapocho River, which in its course towards the Pacific Ocean cut off routes, left small isolated towns and affected families.

“It is raining at an altitude of 3,300 meters, which activates the ravines and puts people’s lives at risk, we have indicated that this is the worst frontal system we have had in 10 years”, said the governor of the Santiago metropolitan region, Claudio Orrego.

Authorities have declared a red alert and ordered preventive evacuations in various towns in regions south of the capital, where winters tend to be colder and rainier. In the last decade, the central zone of Chile has faced a severe drought.

In Santiago, for its part, since Thursday night the inhabitants of Andean towns in the tourist area of ​​the Maipo drawer, to the east of the capital, have been transferred due to the threat of landslides and overflows of that river, which together with the Mapocho they feed the city.

In the capital, the authorities have also called to collect water due to the risk of cuts due to the turbidity of both rivers, which after passing through the capital join to flow into the sea.

“I was sleeping and around two in the morning the neighbors started beating and yelling for us to get out of the houses because the river was going to flow out. Already type three, three and a half the river came out and we had to start”, said Franco Rodríguez, one of those affected by the flooding of the Mapocho in the small town of Noviciado, to the northeast of Santiago.

The flooding of the Mapocho cut off a good part of the very busy route that connects Santiago with the port of Valparaíso, located about 100 kilometers towards the coast to the west.

With information from Bloomberg, AFP and Reuters