Transcripts For DW Close Up 20190423 : vimarsana.com

A little youre nobody should we chileans avocados for breakfast a lot of shredded salad in the afternoon and in the evening its a souped up fruit that serves up one was called well its become a kind of green gold. And. Its also a superstar on social media and amount. Its a very versatile fruit but at the same time tom stands for a set of health food stands for almost a new school. But it comes at a cost will be a delicacy question if everyone knew the chileans had to live without water because of a car as your put have to stop importing them. In the go to know what id like. Ricardo sang is the long time mona of a small farm in the chair lam province of to talk and this is his irrigation canal. Own whats left of it. For decades it was ricardos lifeline. If they can then they can now has had no water in it for six years now at the canal that our own smallholders used it to water or avocados and now sadly its dead. Its a lemon thought. The canals water came from the nearby river. But you know what. Today ricardo and his friends ran a fake gonna and Rodriguez Daca can walk across the river bank. To. Be. Immune that was the river how he took the fifteen years ago now its a garbage dump and the water stuck in there called the trees up on the hills the river was stolen from us out of the. Road rager mandara is the founder of motor team an initiative to protect Drinking Water. Youre going to go all over the any alcohol or the walsall i remember this river being a place of joy and relaxation we came here to swim in the summer i find it deeply shocking to see how it is now i cant stand it of want of a castle. Bridges in but talk of barely serve a purpose these days but the water hasnt disappeared. Its hidden away in the afrikander plantations me up on thousands of hectares of these water guzzling fruits grown for export including to europe. One of the same time many people get their water brought in on trucks at the expense. Of the tax plan. Including those who have been farmers their entire lives and had enough water. Like zoe like heroes. Only my prickly pear plant has survived. Which barely needs any water. Until a few years ago zoe his pride and joy was here just behind our house. On. That one you know. My avocado trees were down there three hundred of the one all of them dried up. And i also had plans a pretty hot spot polson to bed lets. Not leave i had no way of watering them so they died. I had nothing not a drop off in my ancient twelve write down everything died out. Next as oil is land theres now a big large avocado plantation. Roderigo tells us a businessman bought an immense area of land to start growing the super food. Into it when hes got too much power and it comes to that ground water up from way down deep. Below and over there forty or fifty heck theres a robert caros here there or more. Ready to pick it so that it never will and you know that you know harvesting im already q knows of them. Its a losing battle for water some regions are coping better eighty kilometers away in the neighboring province of lie like water comes from glacial springs. But a fruit empire run by the schmitz family of german descent is causing similar animosity. Agricultural land use here also spread like wildfire with the avocado boom of the one nine hundred ninety s. Harvesting is done by hand and multiyear schmidt oversees it past nearly hes one of chiles biggest avocado exporters. What does he think of the water shortages in potomac and. I think the i mean. I dont know to what extent people really are lacking water. But maybe the government should build more plants to treat the river water and make it wrinkle for the local residents. You know i mean the avocado farms of also invested money and water rights to take advantage of it. But all. The producers always try to ensure theres enough water left over. For one because they save money they use the least possible amount of water per plantation and her tree may not be able to see the. Footprint the same portable you would want to say even has its limits you have a car there was a first the fruit one kilo requires up to one thousand liters of water thats eight times more than potatoes. Has a pump station. We pump the ground water up onto the hills. Put in the highest slopes give you the best climate for avocados. They grow bigger and ripen faster we just need more power for the pumps. Mathias has to drill one hundred twenty meters down to where he can get enough ground water for his fruit. Growing avocados on this scale is a mammoth undertaking. But its an Important Pillar of the chilean economy. Critics say scarce water from chile is being shipped to europe in the form of avocados the special air conditioned containers they use also adds to the fruits environmental footprint. And as yet another issue. Consumers expect to buy avocados ready to eat off the shelf. That means the heart and right fruits have to be ripened and shoot temperature controlled warehouses that simulate the humidity and heat of and natural environment. Some of these avocados end up in restaurants like this one in amsterdam. The avocado show is an avocado restaurant and was the first of its kind in the world. And it is one of the best. Thats i think at ten am and already full. Its gone may heaven for the instagram generation. Theres been a lot of press has been a lot of social media but theres also just people who work for ally. Out of the top five restaurants are the top five lunch or breakfast or whatever and im sure youll find this in those lists are you good looking sharp for those that it does go. Avocado burgers for salads toasted all dishes are designed for a target group that knows what it. Means other various Health Conscious and we know that others arent really good for you i mean it still might help if i have a chart good for you. Really good stuff like alarm avocado all that and this is now a kind of rule i think thats. Very nice and saw the pankaj stuff as really really not really sweet i mean us. Its run by chance Marketing Experts who were looking for a new business idea. We didnt want to open another burger place or get out of a pizza place or whatever so like what is model that hasnt been used before. Avocado you can use it called warman any of this you can make anything with it. And i have plans to expand. We already developed the entire franchise formula weve been working really hard the past six months we have an investor now we have over one hundred fifty people interested worldwide in really cool cities to start opening these and its coming whats the next few months youre going to see the first few open. Mood. We go back to july. Theres always been an arid region with little rainfall and no glacial water thats why the government always declares a province wide state of water emergency in the summer. But water intensive avocado farming goes on regardless. Rock creek among dot com is. Agricultural engineer who has been fighting for human right to Drinking Water for years. Rodriguez says there was enough water for everyone before the avocado boom to shortages began when the first big plantations moved in. The entire ecosystem collapses when the river dries up the. Clouds cant form without water evaporation so it rains even last. Winter the big gob ocado exporters are disrupting the water cycle. And the damage to the ecosystem is irreversible. Gone are the days when Small Farmers group beans corn and potatoes now its avocado monoculture everywhere. But rico and his fellow protesters refuse to accept it. The roma coville chairs is the leader of a nonprofit neighborhood cooperative. Well provides water for one thousand residents its right next to one of the big plantations. She says she faces constant threats and accusations of water fast. Well ill let you feel up if. They put pressure on us and the authorities do too. They threaten us and discriminate against us. But. Because we resisted when they tried to force us to give our water to a private company. But i let our water is for the people for the community thats what the law says to its for the poor. But it paul. Veronicas tanks are often empty and summer when the ground water level drops the neighborhood relies on the state water trucks. They have to save water here all year round. If not for the other os the tanker used to recycle the water. Showering is a luxury and laundry is done once a month ago where. We waste water from the bathrooms and kitchens ends up here to water the plants that are left there on a key used to keep cows and goats and make our own milk and cheese today she only grows lemons almost as an act of defiance. And im laughing about it out we go one day after the movie and ethel my hope is that one day things will be better for us on that one day a politician a president whos not corrupt look change the chilean constitution. That is the crux of the matter. Well rick water should be public property and the lawn to everyone although. The constitution allows the privatization of water. Anyone who can afford it buys rights and can hold water quite legally. Roderigo and his fellow activists say thats how potomac his water has been diverted away from the people who also need to. Watch and stop whether green go to ground and the chilean government helps to keep it that way. And thats it that he seemed. To me you know the best you have to realize that the state covers three quarters of the costs for these reservoirs. Businesses pay just a quarter though we want to know why the state funds the businesses to build these pools of clean Drinking Water wells its water that other people need to survive it. Would be. The Activists Campaign for the u. N. Socalled human right to water which chile officially recognizes. That youre invested in that what the plantation owners have water and want to give any away. While at the same time were suffering catastrophic droughts if you feel helpless because we see the water being hoarded and the government doesnt do anything about it and that in our you know yes in napa. A little farther above the avocado plantations a gravel road leads to a stream. I think. It will to never be quick we shouldnt stay long at the gate. Roger ego doesnt want to attract attention theres a well by the stream. When you do you think you did anything this well is channeled through the big pools that water the plantations should say i want to put in there thank you also got to got this well is it normal has been built into the bad someones getting water illegally with. It was with social. Justice have you wanted it and offered it to you and nothing up and if you know nothing about the village we need this water down in the village just now one chance. No no no one. Rodriguez says there are very few people who are willing to take on the powerful avocado producers. One of them is mad Costanzo Valentine agro hes paying a visit to zoila the family with the dried up well. The man had a water tank built paid for by the chronically underfunded public pass. So when it gets to deliveries of Drinking Water each week the price for that can triple and sama. We should have thought for her family is a luxury product. That youre. Right its nothing but yellow that we couldnt wash in the height of summer we couldnt cook and more it was bad somehow we have to survive the drought every summer even though we suffer a lot. It will feel moved and. The maraton is campaigning for fairer distribution of water but he alone cant force the avocado producers to give up their water he doesnt have the all farty. All he can do is plate. It and the. Out of the people who own and run the plantations sat at this table five years ago. And i asked them. In times of extreme drought if theyd be willing to limit their water usage to grant some water rights to the people of the community what do you see they said no you see their goal is to produce reach targets and export. Well then you know the conversation ended there. And what was left to discuss. Like that like i said everything. That i see at all. The first for profit is overriding human solidarity when asked to comment the regions top exporter said avocados are the reason for the water shortage and that no producer to date has been legally charged with stealing water. But still there have always been disputes about water in petaca especially in summer. But im going to keep it going and also. An Aerial Survey over a legal river i was carried out in two thousand and twelve to see if there were underground channels diverting the river water and that anyone out of. Sixty four were found under this river alone sixty four percent they said think well thats why this river is completely dried out. Over Cattle Producers have diverted the underground water so thats why theyve always got water. It would associate with you know what. Paul rodriguez has repeatedly voiced his criticism. Of the report by chalange broadcaster shows him at one of the many crisis summits with government representatives. Weve reported whats happening here is so many times. That i deliberately and many lawsuits that do happen only ever result in mild punishments. You know what i want to fight them you know water theft is always going to france in chile. With a fine of twelve hundred euros let these guys pay the money and carry on but the one thing. I mean even if you win the central. We go and recount publicly voice their objections and complain to the police theyve been insulted and received an anonymous threat. So they leave the facility at all of beer were not living we go were surviving every day in fear. Following you who wants to hurt them alone when you go on t. V. They call us eco terrorists it all revolutionary. People say were just causing problems. Even within our community at. All because we want to defend our water. Whatever part of it and did it to our. Water in chile is a commodity you can even be bought as an investment people who own water rights but hardly any tax on them theyre very loosely monitored. Its a lot of the tartly changed since the military dictatorship explains the head of the waterfall thora to see. The state issues water licenses sometimes theyre lifelong but i thought i had it they can be resold to whoever is offering the most money. In just a license gives you the right to take so much water per second from a specific place on a public river for example. Youve obtained that right for years. So its yours. And youre perfectly entitled to sell and no one. Can see me and. This is even having an effect fourteen thousand kilometers away in berlin and the worlds biggest fruit trade to talk trade or in holland avoids avocados from petaca. So you really need to find the right partners. Located on the right spots so on the pit or a region we as a company we dont source for that from that region just because of the water issues that are in that location. The south americans including the exports from her talk are hoping to strike some good deals at the trade show. On the water shortage is an issue for the chilean authorities. Completely about if it does we as a state or not together with the exporters ensure that all export standards are met that applies to all chilean fruit they must be sustainable and trade and i think all food is safe you know that safety. Right there so. There have been years of water shortages in petaca but theyre still exporting avocados from there how does that fit in with a consumers demand for sustainability. Not i dont know about that. If theres one thing the trade show proved its that business is booming one sales record follows the next mostly thanks to the afrikander. The way things are going in potomac the region will likely help that trend continue an estimated eighty percent of the water already goes towards agriculture. New crops are appearing despite the lack of water rodriguez documents the rampant growth of agricultural. Hand. That photo may have no future. As things stand the climate the lack of rain. The dried out rivers. Well were talking will just be sacrificed that would have been a loss in us honestly fees are protecting the monoculture and the export of avocados at the cost of peoples access to Drinking Water and that even though they dont really seem that well set up all the sea. Water is also material schmidts biggest concern but only that it wont be sufficient to meet the demand for his applecart theres. No money needed to build one of the three new eyes are you now of course where the water is scarce there will no doubt. The government should spend more money and expropriate land to make more space for reservoir you know. That i know by that you know thats going to be. His water requirements are also rising hes just bought new fields to plant seedlings. That will be six hundred thousand new have a condo tree. Thinks this is just the start of the boom boom. Boom the way he got on you know if a woman found that a man dont think amanda increases by thirty percent ever hear of us and us alone it will continuously year after year thirty percent of the time is he now waiting for china there are only just starting to discover of the cosmos we have all of these demands are ripe because theres a way of funding advertising budget to show the chinese how to get the goal was it was going to be great about the goals that are going to blame god for the. Gold rush for the avocado farmers and dishpan for the people trying to save their environment. In the final quarter is a never ending story. Kickoff. Caps. Was the best. The best place for. The best goalie. In this League Highlights up to. Thirty. Two days dont miss our highlights. Program. W dot com highlights. The to. Cut. She lanka for on and in honor of the victims of the attacks. As the nation grieves and remembers those who lost their lives is one question on many peoples minds good