en.Wedoany.com Reported - The Aqua Loa Project (Proyecto Anillo Aqua Loa), launched by the Universidad Católica del Norte (UCN), is funded by Chile's National Agency for Research and Development (Agencia Nacional de Investigación y Desarrollo, ANID). It aims to address the water crisis from a comprehensive and innovative perspective, transforming the management of the Loa River (río Loa), Chile's longest river.
Executed in the Antofagasta region (región de Antofagasta), the project has a budget of approximately 660 million Chilean pesos, disbursed over three years. It integrates geological and geophysical exploration, structural analysis, remote sensing, isotope tracing, and hydrogeochemical methods, combined with a pilot phytoremediation system adapted to the local Atacama Desert (desierto de Atacama) environment.
Project leader and scholar Dr. Christian Herrera Lameli emphasized that the initiative provides a specialized perspective on addressing the water crisis from the standpoint of a strategic regional resource. The hydrogeologist, who also serves as director of UCN's Center for Technological Research on Water and Sustainability in the Desert (Centro de Investigación Tecnológica de Agua y Sustentabilidad en el Desierto, Ceitsaza), noted that historically, the Loa basin has been subjected to intensive extraction due to agricultural, mining, industrial, and drinking water supply activities, affecting the river's original flow, runoff, and water quality.
The project's specific objectives include: assessing new groundwater sources for sustainable agriculture; improving surface water quality in aquifers through phytoremediation; studying water flow and its sources; and conducting aquifer modeling to determine extractable water volumes.
Co-leader of the project and Ceitsaza researcher Dr. Javier Urrutia emphasized that the Loa basin is the region's primary water resource, supporting agriculture, urban areas, mining, and ecosystems of high environmental value. The initiative aims to generate applied knowledge through nature-based solutions, identify new groundwater sources, assess their agricultural suitability, and restore key river sections.
Using native plants for phytoremediation is a promising alternative for treating contaminated water bodies. This method utilizes plants and their rhizosphere microorganisms to degrade, immobilize, or remove environmental pollutants through natural processes, thereby restoring degraded soils. It is an effective, low-cost solution adapted to desert conditions.
The project collaborates with institutions such as the Universidad de las Américas (UDLA), Rutgers University in the United States, Spain's Consejo Superior de Investigación Científica (CSIC), and the Instituto Geológico y Minero de España (IGME) to enhance regional research capacity in hydrogeology within hyper-arid zones.
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