Life is for Sale

Yorgos Avgeropoulos
2010-07-01

0
61 min

"Life is for Sale" examines the world's largest water market set up in Chile. Where the water resources of the country do not belong to the state but to private individuals and one company can own an entire river and possess an amount of water equal to the area of Belgium. Where water has been transformed from a life public good into property, and a "water right" can cost as much as a house. Even in the Atacama desert, considered the driest region on the planet, mining companies (major owners of Chile's longest river, Rio Loa) pump huge quantities and use the precious water to wash minerals, condemning thousands of indigenous people and farming villages to thirst and poverty.