Water resources management in Chile
Much of Chile is dominated by the Andes Mountain range and many high altitude glaciers. With rising temperatures, the IPCC warns of increased melting for many of these glaciers, with some of them disappearing as early as 2020–2030. The Third Assessment Report from the IPCC indicate a critical situation for glaciers in neighboring countries such as Bolivia and Peru. The IPCC report goes on to say that glaciers in Chile are drastically reducing their volume at an increasing rate and that changes in temperature and humidity are the primary cause. In an article from Science Daily in March 2008, the news agency reports that, "if the inter-tropical glaciers of Chile, Argentina, and Colombia disappear, water availability and hydropower generation will be affected." Of the thirty test glaciers monitored in the Andes by the World Glacier Monitoring Service (WGMS) only Chile's Echaurren Norte glacier thickened between 2005 and 2006.
Water resources management in Chile
Chile's rivers are generally short, running from the Andes in the East to the Pacific in the West. The most important rivers in Chile are the Loa River in the Northern Atacama desert, the country's longest river with a length of 420 km that has suffered pollution from copper mining; the Baker River in Patagonia, the country's largest river in terms of discharge that is the site of Chile's largest planned hydropower plant with a capacity of 2,400 Megawatts; the Biobío River, the country's second longest river that became famous for the construction of controversial Pangue Dam in 1996; the Maule River in the central part of Chile that is well known for its agriculture, including its irrigated vineyards, as well at the literature and poetry it has inspired; and the Maipo River that provides the capital Santiago with drinking water and is also a major source of water for irrigation.