On September 11, 1973, General Augusto Pinochet, supported by the USA, carried out a military coup in Santiago de Chile. This was followed by 17 years of brutal dictatorship. In 1981, Pinochet enacted the Código de Aguas, a water law influenced by the neoliberal thinking of the so-called Chicago Boys. Since then, Chile's waters have been privatised and traded like commodities. Around 2,000 kilometres south of the capital Santiago de Chile lies the Aysén region, home to the country's largest bodies of water. On Lago General Carrera, Chile's largest lake, lies the village of Puerto Guadal with around 800 inhabitants. They often have to take care of their own water supply, while foreign companies secure water rights on a large scale. The free water market causes social conflict and environmental damage, which leads to protests. A new constitution for the de-privatisation of water has been proposed, but so far all have been rejected by the population. As a result, water privatisation remains a symbolic remnant of the military dictatorship.
Biography
Stella Meyer (*1997, Salzburg, AT) and Sarah Schneider (*1996, Vorarlberg, AT) currently live in Hanover, Germany. They have been studying Visual Journalism and Documentary Photography at Hanover University of Applied Sciences and Arts since 2020. Together they form a photographer duo with a focus on socio-political issues and the aim of making the invisible visible. Their work has already been published in various media and presented at the ‘World Press Photo Exhibition’ in Oldenburg (DE) and the ‘Fotofestiwal’ in Lodz (PL).