| Summary: | The Alto Maipo hydroelectrical project is located in the metropolitan region of Santiago de Chile, at the east of Santiago's urban agglomeration. It plans the installation of two run-on-river dams with a total capacity of 531 MW upstream of the Maipo River, where the catchment area irrigates the entire region and supplies drinking water to more than 6 million people. Conceived as a project of general interest based on the production of energy from a renewable resource, it is located in a wellknown Andean area as the Cajon del Maipo, which serves as a resource area for Santiago, due to its environmental and ecological amenities. The project has been confronted since its approval in 2009 to a major opposition, led by two non-profit, citizen-based organizations. Through their discourse, they succeeded in bringing together a wide range of stakeholders by reassessing the impact scales of the hydroelectric project, resulting in the transformation of a green energy project into a major metropolitan environmental injustice.
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