Before and after photographs show the impact of a devastating drought in Chile, with a lush field becoming desert-like. Images show how the land has become barren, with the bones of starved animals lying on the ground – but the avocado crops are still verdant.
Cultivation of the millennial staple has been partly blamed for the water shortages, with the limited water that there is used up to grow the crops. People have no running water in their houses, but across town, thousands of hectares of avocado grow in an oasis. Photos show how avocado continues to grow, even though the riverbeds have run dry.
Along with climate change, people in this region with subtropical climate blame agricultural production companies, especially of avocado, to have generated the water problem. The drought has been especially punishing in La Ligua, capital of the Petorca Province, Valparaiso Region. Chile”s President Sebastian Pinera decreed a catastrophe zone in the area.
Source: Jen Mills, Metro