The Jáchal River is a river in the

province A province is an administrative division within a country or sovereign state, state. The term derives from the ancient Roman , which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire, Roman Empire's territorial possessions ou ...

San Juan San Juan, Spanish for Saint John (disambiguation), Saint John, most commonly refers to: * San Juan, Puerto Rico * San Juan, Argentina * San Juan, Metro Manila, a highly urbanized city in the Philippines San Juan may also refer to: Places Arge ...

Argentina Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...

. It is part of the Desaguadero River basin, and one of the most important permanent watercourses in the province, with an average flow of . It is born from the confluence of the Río de la Palca and the Blanco River, in the northwest of San Juan.

Course

From its origin, the Jáchal flows south for , up to a

ravine A ravine is a landform that is narrower than a canyon and is often the product of streambank erosion. Ravines are typically classified as larger in scale than gullies, although smaller than valleys. Ravines may also be called a cleuch, dell, ...

in the pre-

Andean The Andes ( ), Andes Mountains or Andean Mountain Range (; ) are the longest continental mountain range in the world, forming a continuous highland along the western edge of South America. The range is long and wide (widest between 18°S ...

range, in a place called Cuesta del Viento. There, it turns eastward towards the city of San José de Jáchal, flowing for along a steep gorge. Upon reaching Jáchal, the river turns south again for , and then northeast-southeast, passing by the towns of Tucunuco and Mogna. It then flows and empties into the upper Desaguadero River (here known as Bermejo). The Jáchal River is fed primarily by snow thaw, rainfall being only a minor contribution in this semi-arid region. Its

drainage basin A drainage basin is an area of land in which all flowing surface water converges to a single point, such as a river mouth, or flows into another body of water, such as a lake or ocean. A basin is separated from adjacent basins by a perimeter, ...

covers an area of , or around if considered up to Cuesta del Viento. The river is

dam A dam is a barrier that stops or restricts the flow of surface water or underground streams. Reservoirs created by dams not only suppress floods but also provide water for activities such as irrigation, human consumption, industrial use, aqua ...

med in two points: * The Cuesta del Viento Dam, from Jáchal, has a maximum volume of . It is used to regulate and direct the flow for

irrigation Irrigation (also referred to as watering of plants) is the practice of applying controlled amounts of water to land to help grow crops, landscape plants, and lawns. Irrigation has been a key aspect of agriculture for over 5,000 years and has bee ...

, and long-delayed works are in progress to finish a

hydroelectric Hydroelectricity, or hydroelectric power, is Electricity generation, electricity generated from hydropower (water power). Hydropower supplies 15% of the world's electricity, almost 4,210 TWh in 2023, which is more than all other Renewable energ ...

power station A power station, also referred to as a power plant and sometimes generating station or generating plant, is an industrial facility for the electricity generation, generation of electric power. Power stations are generally connected to an electr ...

. * The Salto de la Loma hydroelectric plant, northwest of Jáchal, employs a high fall and has an installed power of about 1,200 kW.

Environmental issues

The Jáchal is the most important natural source of water for domestic, agricultural and industrial use in its valley, but the quality of its waters is not considered good in normal conditions, due to a high mineralization, especially

salts In chemistry, a salt or ionic compound is a chemical compound consisting of an assembly of positively charged ions ( cations) and negatively charged ions (anions), which results in a compound with no net electric charge (electrically neutral). ...

and

boron Boron is a chemical element; it has symbol B and atomic number 5. In its crystalline form it is a brittle, dark, lustrous metalloid; in its amorphous form it is a brown powder. As the lightest element of the boron group it has three ...

content. The latter has been found in concentrations of 2.8 parts per million (0.7 ppm are considered the upper limit for sensitive crops such as

grapes A grape is a fruit, botanically a berry, of the deciduous woody vines of the flowering plant genus ''Vitis''. Grapes are a non- climacteric type of fruit, generally occurring in clusters. The cultivation of grapes began approximately 8,0 ...

). In the early 2000s, Barrick Gold Corporation, a

Canadian Canadians () are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being ''C ...

enterprise and the largest gold-mining corporation in the world, started a

gold extraction Gold extraction is the extraction of gold from dilute ores using a combination of chemical processes. Gold mining produces about 3600 tons annually, and another 300 tons is produced from recycling. Since the 20th century, gold has been principal ...

project in the San Juan Andean ranges. Residents of San Juan protested against the project, claiming that the

cyanide process Gold cyanidation (also known as the cyanide process or the MacArthur–Forrest process) is a hydrometallurgical technique for extracting gold from low-grade ore through conversion to a water-soluble coordination complex. It is the most commonly u ...

will pollute the upper courses of the Jáchal and

rivers. In an interview in February 2006, the governor of San Juan, José Luis Gioja, denied the possibility of such damage. In 2015, Barrick Gold Corporation admitted that 224,000 liters of "cyanide solution" had spilled into the Jáchal and four other nearby rivers due to what they described as "a faulty valve". While Barrick Gold Corporation and the San Juan Mining Chamber insisted that the spill posed "no threat" to the area's population, the provincial government advised that residents only drink bottled water until further notice.

References

External links

CUENCAS HIDRICAS SUPERFICIALES DE LA REPUBLICA ARGENTINA
* Secretaría de Minería de la Nación
Provincia de San Juan - Recursos hídricos
* INTA

* Fundación para la defensa del ambiente (FUNAM)

* CuyoNoticias. ttp://cuyonoticias.com.ar/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=165&Itemid=109 ''Manifestación en contra empresa minera internacional.'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Jachal River Rivers of Argentina Rivers of San Juan Province, Argentina