Habitar entre arenas de relaves. Incertidumbre sanitaria y sufrimiento ambiental en Chañaral (Chile)

Abstract

Chañaral is a coastal town located in the Atacama region, whose ecosystem was polluted severely due to the sedimentation of mining tailings. Although this problem has been addressed from the environmental sciences and public health, few studies have sought to address the inhabitants’ experiences as a necessary factor to consider in urban-environmental planning. From the perspective of environmental suffering, the study aims to show how, despite the abundance of scientific information on the potential incidence of pollution, the absence of concrete measures to address the problem generates uncertainties, confusion, and resignation among the habitants. Through an analysis of qualitative information and public health reports, the article shows that the contamination of Chañaral is an environmental and biomedical fact and an evident socio-cultural phenomenon in the construction of meanings about the inhabited territory and narratives about everyday toxicity. The study concludes that there is a relationship between the daily suffering and the uncertainties in the face of the potential toxic risk, which translates into environmental suffering as there are no concrete measures that aim to address the problem entirely.