Leaning over the edge of a reservoir the size of two football fields,a farm technician swings an upturned gallon bottle wildly from side to side,tipping out its clear contents. Do you like my technique? He says with a laugh. An oily layer spreads out over the water. It calms the ripples and dulls the glimmer of Chile's winter sunlight on its surface. For a few minutes,there's an intense smell of acetone,like someone has spilled a giant bottle of nail polish remover. At this blueberry farm an hour's drive from Santiago,Hortifrut,one of the largest berry producers in South America,is trialing one solution to Chile's unprecedented 13 year-drought. For the month of August,the liquid from the bottle,a mix of polymers and alcohol,sits on top of the water,never mixing with it. According to the manufacturer,Chilean startup O2 Company,this protective layer will cut the rate of evaporation by 50-80%,saving hundreds of thousands of gallons of water a month. That's a huge benefit in Chile. Drier,hotter conditions have drained lakes and left more than half the country's 19 million people facing severe water scarcity. Less and less water flows from irrigation canals into Hortifrut's reservoir,and the level now sits around 10 feet lower than normal. We made this reservoir thinking it would provide us with a month of [water supplies],says Denise Donnay,Hortifrut's head of research and development. But recently,it lasts a lot less.
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