With its emer­ald green waters and white sands, the small town of Mejill­ones in north­ern Chile looks decept­ively like a typ­ical sea­side resort. In the dis­tance, however, coalfired plants and factor­ies bel­low nox­ious fumes into the air, a grim reminder that the town in the Atacama Desert is amon the country's five so-called "sacrifice zones," where residents lived engulfed in pollution.

Polluted paradise: Chile town waits for cleanup as coal shuts off. (2024, February 13). Manila Bulletin, p. 7.