Peru bores through Andes to water desert

[Judi Lynn]

Peru bores through Andes to water desert
Published: 8:52AM Friday April 05, 2013 Source: Reuters

Peru's Olmos Valley might be a desert now, with rare rains and rivers that trickle to life for just a few months a year, but a radical engineering solution for water scarcity could soon create an agricultural bonanza here.

Fresh water that now tumbles down the eastern flank of the Andes mountains to the Amazon basin and eventually the Atlantic Ocean will instead move west through the mountains to irrigate this patch of desert on Peru's coast. It will then drain into the Pacific Ocean.

The Herculean project to reverse the flow of water and realise a century-old dream is in many ways the most important water work ever in Peru. It could serve as a blueprint for the kind of construction projects needed to tackle worsening water scarcity.

Call it extreme engineering in the age of global warming.

"All of this will be green," said engineer Giovanni Palacios, looking out over miles of brown shrubbery at a
construction site he oversees for the Brazilian firm Odebrecht.

More:
http://tvnz.co.nz/technology-news/peru-bores-through-andes-water-desert-5395386

[Cleita]

1. Actually, the sands of the deserts of southern Peru and northern Chile

are rich in nitrate, which they make fertilizer from. All it lacks is water. If they can break up the hard packed earth and plant it, it will become a lush garden that could go a long way in feeding the world. All they need is water and determination.

[Judi Lynn]

2. Now that's some good news. Didn't know. Wouldn't it be wonderful? Thanks, Cleita. n/t

[Cleita]

4. See my post#3. It was meant for you. n/t

[Cleita]

3. I used to live in the Atacama desert in Chile and there were a few Oases

there with lush farms where fresh water could be found from melted snow from the Andes. Many of the English residents in our mining camp compound grew cottage gardens. They said it was great to grow things in and because it was fertile, there was a lack of insects, no need for battling pests, and lots of sunshine. All that was needed was water.

[Judi Lynn]

5. Had no idea there were any oases within the Atacama desert region. Wow. Dryest place on earth!

That would be fascinating to see.

I'll remember what you've said about this actual fertility of the earth waiting to come to life. Astonishing.

Gives the Peruvian project even more reason to watch, knowing you've already seen it can be done.

Thank you.

[Cleita]

6. Here's a wiki page on Calama which is the oasis I'm familiar with the most.

I once lived in Chuquicamata, the copper mine, under American control back then which is 16 kilometers north of Calama.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calama,_Chile

I haven't been there since 1958 and am frankly surprised how populated it has become. Back then it was an agrarian village populated by the local indigenous people.

[naaman fletcher]

11. Why would you have had any idea?

You have never even been to Latin America

[Cleita]

14. Correction. That would be South America.

Latin America includes parts of North America as well. And how would you know if she's been to South America? There is more there than just the Atacama desert, a place most people don't visit unless they have some sort of business there.

[Cleita]

16. I think she's right because I have been there and I agree with most

of what she says because what the USA is doing there as a matter of policy is a crime.

[naaman fletcher]

17. ???

Right about what? (Boarding plane, won't be able to reply for a few hours)

[ocpagu]

7. Very interesting.

Didn't know about this project. Sounds like it's very needed. Thanks for sharing.

[naaman fletcher]

8. I wonder

How does this effect the areas that the water used to flow to?

[Bacchus4.0]

9. I thought about that too however I believe the rainfall

is fairly plentiful on the eastern side of the Andes so hopefully the effect isn't too ecologically destructive. And if the population needs water, they have to find a source. It rarely rains in Lima and almost never in the areas west of the Andes as you move south. Areq

[Cleita]

10. Actually, if they can pipe snow melt from the Andes, it should be sufficient for irrigation.

However, if we are going through global warming and the ice packs are melting faster than they should, all bets are off.

[Bacchus4.0]

12. some previously permanent ice caps in South America no longer have

permanent ice caps. Not sure how much ice melt contributes to the ecosytem and hydrologic system east of the Andes where they get much more rainfall.

[Cleita]

13. The mining camp I once lived on the west side used to pipe water from the Andes

and there were a few water towers along the roads that used piped water, but it would be a huge engineering project and very expensive. There are rivers, but because of the salt peter in the ground they turn to salt water rivers before they reach the ocean.

[Bacchus4.0]

18. In Sign of Warming, 1,600 Years of Ice in Andes Melted in 25 Years

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/05/world/americas/1600-years-of-ice-in-perus-andes-melted-in-25-years-scientists-say.html



.The evidence comes from a remarkable find at the margins of the Quelccaya ice cap in Peru, the world’s largest tropical ice sheet. Rapid melting there in the modern era is uncovering plants that were locked in a deep freeze when the glacier advanced many thousands of years ago.

----------
Several years ago, the team reported on plants that had been exposed near a meltwater lake. Chemical analysis showed them to be about 4,700 years old, proving that the ice cap had reached its smallest extent in nearly five millenniums.

In the new research, a thousand feet of additional melting has exposed plants that laboratory analysis shows to be about 6,300 years old. The simplest interpretation, Dr. Thompson said, is that ice that accumulated over approximately 1,600 years melted back in no more than 25 years.

---------
Throughout the Andes, glaciers are now melting so rapidly that scientists have grown deeply concerned about water supplies for the people living there. Glacial meltwater is essential for helping Andean communities get through the dry season.

[Cleita]

19. If this is so, it's tragic for the world. The Andes ice caps are an essential part of the

eco-system in that part of the world and the earth at large. If all that fresh water melts into the ocean, it will become salt water and not good for people and animals to drink.