Decontamination of the air

Air pollution in the cities of the Aysén region has become an important political issue, while those of us who have been working there for years, and not just us, are seeing a lot of mess , demagoguery and few solutions. If the measures of Coyhaique's decontamination plan have achieved something, it is that people are starting to take up the issue and mobilize, because the contamination is already old.

Thus, while the plans propose to solve at least part of the problem within ten years, those affected need more speed and solutions.

The decontamination plan MP 10 in force since 2016, as well as MP 10 + 2,5 in progress, have as structural lines: 1. Thermal reconditioning to reduce the energy needs; 2. Replace contaminated heating systems; 3. Improvement of the quality of firewood and diversification of fuel use; 4. Education and community outreach. For these lines, in our opinion, there are at least two other factors that are missing: 1. Absorption of pollution with green walls and filters, trees, green spaces and natural and artificial precipitators. 2. Urban planning and land-use planning. Regarding the latter, it is well known that vegetation absorbs CO2 and produces oxygen, in addition, there are several studies on how to reduce particles. By the way, this line requires prior study and design and a cultural campaign. In terms of urban planning and planning, at least we must decentralize cities and improve the quality of urban life by managing densities, integrating strategic green spaces and enhancing the existing parks abandoned on paper , integrating the establishment of green spaces and tree planting of urbanized streets (Minvu and Municipal Ordinance) and abandoning the culture of mutilation and eradication of trees.

None of these lines solve the problem by itself, because it does not matter the number of polluting heaters and kitchens. The higher cost of its operation, if the house is still a basket from which all the heat escapes, makes its cost unsustainable and the return to cheap and bad firewood, as it is the case. Our teachings and proposals concerning the lines of action are: 1. Thermal reconditioning is essential and priority, but its execution is too slow and runs up against the lack of building permits of at least 50 % of houses, with bureaucratic barriers and people think that their house is well insulated. There is the possibility of regularizing (with the monkey's law or some other form) and repackaging at the same time and conditioning by the users themselves with technical support and perhaps a subsidy. New houses must be conditioned. 2. The replacement of heating systems with twice the cost of operation represents an economic burden for users and may fail. Replacing the smoke of Coyhaique with that of Santiago de Cuba is not good either. 3. The law that regulates firewood and its by-products as fuel is urgently needed, pending the municipal ordinance regulating firewood and more drying. It is urgent that the respective services fulfill their duty to control the production chain of firewood; Traceability is proven. Nothing is done to buy dry wood if it is not stored inside, which usually does not exist. It is unproductive for the state to give bonuses and poor quality firewood. It is necessary to prove and encourage the use of catalytic and electrostatic filters. It does not make much sense to promote non-renewable fuels that involve dependency, safety risks and do not contribute to the regional economy. The region has huge biombad, wind, hydro, geothermal and tidal energy resources. The state must be involved in lowering its price. Electricity is clean energy and although its tariff has dropped by 25%, it remains expensive because it is generated with dirty oil, a fine is required for winter consumption, there is little economy scale and monopolistic exports are exporting. Replacing oil is easy, at the company it allows for greater consumption and also nighttime consumption at half the rate. This would at least solve the morning peak and some would smoke at night. There are those who think that the solution is to nationalize Edelaysen and others that the state should be involved in generating at a lower cost. And you do not need HidroAysén for that! The unique national rate is possible! There are also many that we think the state should subsidize (there are several possibilities) electricity in Aisén, starting with self-generation, in addition to subsidizing gas in Magallanes and in Transantiago. 4. The cultural education work is perhaps the most important and the most urgent, it requires a lot more dedication than before and can not be mixed with interested commercial sponsors. If people and authorities do not understand the context and the causes of the problem, they do not understand that they can not continue to use green and moist wood, that it is necessary to improve the thermal conditioning of their home and that they can start alone. destroyed the fire and we need a more absorbent vegetation, the other lines are not very useful. In this, it is also essential to encourage creativity and community mobilization to solve the problem and take initiatives. In addition, dissemination campaigns and training workshops on energy, thermal conditioning and greening are needed

Finally, both in the plan and on the subject, there is too much misinformation and using information that does not correspond to reality. which reduces their credibility and seriousness. As long as the health context on which the MP 10 plan was based was extrapolated from Temuco, the heating systems come from the United States, the communal data are mixed with those of the saturated zone and the two measurement stations are in the same zoned. In the studies and the basic context and in the search for solutions, we miss the contribution of the INE (city of Coyhaique for the population and housing), the CIEP and the universities installed in the region.