World Soil Day will soon be celebrated at the initiative of the United Nations. Why celebrate soil? Soil sustains human life, providing space for our rural and urban life, and constituting the main source of the food and oxygen we breathe. “Chile, fertile province, and marked”, wrote Alonso de Ercilla in La Araucana, in 1569. The fertile province was an account of the richness of the land in this southern region during the Spanish conquest. How much care do we take of the soil? How can we recover soil that has suffered erosion, forest fires or drought intensified by climate change, or pollution? Industrialization for the development of our country was the fundamental task promoted by Corfo. In the first half century of this process, smokestack industries were considered a symbol of progress and development; today, the emission of abundant pollutants from industrial chimneys is a warning sign for their negative impact on health and the environment. These types of industries with polluting technologies have become obsolete. In the Valparaíso Region this phenomenon is evident in Ventanas and Quintero, industrial zones with a history of serious pollution episodes. Before its industrialization, Quintero was a highly valued summer resort. Sustainable development requires a legal framework to regulate land use, protection, and remediation. Urban growth drives the incorporation of industrial areas and their environmental liabilities into the city, so it is important to address the remediation of contaminated soils. Although academia has been calling for decades for the establishment of soil regulations in Chile, this is still a pending issue. New decontamination technologies are needed for soil remediation. Bioremediation is a decontamination technology, where the actors are microorganisms, being respectful with the environment and climate change. Despite its frequent use in OECD countries, its application in Chile is still incipient. In order to move forward, it is imperative to promote and strengthen the joint work of government agencies, universities, communities and public and private companies. As the lawyer Ana Lya Uriarte, who was the first Minister of the Environment, indicated in Valparaíso, Chile’s new constitution should include in its principles the right and guarantee to live in a pollution-free environment. Soil is an integral part of this environment that we must protect and recover.
