La Ligua River facts for kids

The La Ligua River (Spanish: Río La Ligua) is an important river in Chile. It flows through a special part of the country, helping farmers grow food.

Where is the La Ligua River?

The La Ligua River is found in Chile's Valparaíso Region. This area is called the semi-arid Norte Chico, which means it's quite dry. The river flows through steep, narrow valleys. These valleys are about 20 kilometers (12 miles) wide and 100 kilometers (62 miles) long.

The river starts in the lower Andes Mountains and flows all the way to the Pacific Ocean. It reaches the ocean just north of Papudo town and south of Longotoma town.

What makes the La Ligua River special is where it begins. It starts in the lower parts of the Andes. This means it mainly gets water from melting snow in the spring. Other rivers that start higher up in the Andes get snowmelt all year. Because of this, the La Ligua River's water flow changes with the seasons. It has the most water in spring when snow melts, and much less in the summer. There's also a shallow underground water source, called an aquifer, beneath the river.

Why is the La Ligua River Important?

The La Ligua River is super important for farming in the area. Most of the water from the river is used to help grow crops. Farmers here grow a lot of fruit, and they also raise animals like cattle and goats. Today, the most important crop grown in the La Ligua River area is avocados.

History of the La Ligua River Area

Life Before Big Changes (Pre-1960s)

Before the 1960s, large farms in Chile were owned by a few powerful families. Most farmers, called peasants, didn't own land. Some peasants, known as inquilinos, lived on the big farms permanently. They sometimes got small plots of land to grow food for themselves. Other peasants, called afuerinos, worked by the day. This system meant that a few rich families had a lot of control over the lives of many people. Only about 15% of Chilean peasants could grow extra food to sell at markets during this time.

Big Changes to Land Ownership (1960s-1970s)

In the mid-1960s, big changes came to the La Ligua valley and all of Chile. This was called the "agrarian reform." President Eduardo Frei and his party wanted to change how land was owned. They took large farms that weren't producing enough food and turned them into "collective farms." These farms were then given to the peasants who had been living and working on the land. The government helped these new collective farms a lot.

When President Salvador Allende took office, even more land was given to peasants in his first year than in President Frei's entire six years! At the same time, new laws made it easier for peasants to form unions and organize themselves.

New Ways of Farming (1973-Present)

After 1973, there was a big change in Chile's government. A military government, led by General Augusto Pinochet, took over. This government changed the land reforms. Pinochet wanted Chile to have a "free-market economy." This meant that many peasants started to sell their land. Because of this, land became owned by fewer people again.

Around the La Ligua River, this led to a big change in farming. Farmers started growing crops that could be sold to other countries. In the early 1990s, the area shifted from growing crops like beans, corn, potatoes, and wheat for local use to growing fruits like avocados, citrus fruits, and nuts for export. The amount of land used for these export crops doubled between 1997 and 2002.

The Avocado Boom

New ways of getting and using water, like drilling wells and using pumps, became cheaper in the 1990s. This helped farmers use more water from the La Ligua River and the underground aquifer. This made it possible to grow many more avocado trees. Both large farms and smaller peasant farms started growing lots of avocados to sell.

Making Sure There's Enough Water

Because the area is quite dry, having enough water is a big challenge for farmers in La Ligua. Getting water supplies is a constant worry for them. In Chile, people can apply for "private water rights" to use water. The government office that handles this is called the National Water Directorate (DGA).

Most of the requests for water rights came from large farms. By 1996, so many requests had been made that the DGA stopped giving out new water rights. They needed to study how much water was really available. Since then, it's been hard to get new legal water rights, and some large farmers have used unfair ways to get them.

See also

In Spanish: Río La Ligua para niños

• List of rivers of Chile