In San Juan, mining is highly developed, as can be seen through the large amount of projects.

Our colleagues of Friends of the Earth Argentina participated in the march that took place in the capital city of the Province. The demonstrators went from 25 de Mayo Square to Downtown showing that despite the official measures to silence them, their voices continue to reject the mining "model" and the “anti-terrorist” law that is trying to criminalize the protest.

The mining projects have impacts on the lives of the communities: the Ullum dam, that supplies the city, has seen its water levels decreased, something that worries many people of San Juan who fear the population won’t have access to enough water.

To the North of the province, the situation in Jachal is distressing according to its population, since there is no drinking water available, while the situation is even more complicated in the mountains of the province with the presence of cyanide in one of the areas with most seismic activity of the country.

All in all, today in San Juan any visitor can witness the consequences of the mining policies: environmental, cultural and social contamination. The opponents to these extractive industries say there are more and more irregularities and that these have created a circle of contamination, corruption and impunity, in addition to the omnipresent mining propaganda.

Despite this, the population continues mobilized. Recently, demonstrators in defense of water carried out a peaceful intervention in La Fiesta del Sol –organized by the provincial government- and they were cleared when they were trying to demonstrate against mega-mining.