La Rinconada: the highest and most inhospitable city on earth

Those who arrive in La Rinconada seek their fortune in the gold deposits, but the truth is different: there are no ecological infrastructures or adequate sanitary conditions

Nestled more than 16,700 feet above sea level in the Peruvian Andes, La Rinconada is the world’s highest city. Rich gold deposits make it a magnet for thousands of fortune seekers. Yet life here is far from a golden dream.

Being one of the most inhospitable places on Earth, the city is distinguished not only by its height but also extremely harsh living conditions and the full absence of any ecological infrastructure. Settlement began to grow around the mining industry; gold is the reason people live in such a hostile environment.

Temperatures fall below freezing, and the air gets thin; oxygen levels fall by 50%. Temperatures plunge below freezing, and air becomes thin, oxygen levels falling by 50%. Many of them develop altitude sickness when coming from lower altitudes. This is dangerous as it may cause them serious health hazards. Despite that, hundreds of men and women migrate here at the insistence of their dream of finding more gold.

 

Garbage everywhere and sanitary condition precarious

The sanitary conditions are disastrous: the city is full of waste, without any treatment or collection. Plastic and rubbish abound in the streets, the water courses being contaminated with heavy metals, such as mercury and cyanide, used in the mines for extraction of gold.

The residents do not have any safe drinking water, electricity, nor adequate sewage systems. Lung and respiratory diseases are common; the average life expectancy is only 30-35 years, approximately half of that compared with the rest of Peru.

Another serious issue is that of crime: the city is in the hands of gangs controlling the entrances to mines. Even the form in which miners are paid, called “cachureo,” is a form of exploitation: for 30 days they work without receiving any kind of pay; only on the 31st day do they get to dig for themselves, hoping to obtain some piece of gold. This circle of labor and hope feeds into desperation and the mirage of wealth.

Where the ecology does not exist, the environment is being brutally sacrificed-in this place-and human rights violated, La Rinconada now stands for a ruthless gold rush where people and nature pay the highest price while the world watches indifferently, from afar.