Indigenous communities in northern Argentina are raising urgent concerns about lithium mining operations that could devastate their most precious resource: water. Clemente Flores, president of the El Angosto Indigenous community, represents over 30 communities that have called the Salinas Grandes and Laguna de Guayatayoc Basin home for thousands of years.

Located on the Altiplano plateau at 13,100 feet above sea level, this extremely arid region spans Argentina’s Salta and Jujuy provinces. The ecosystem’s harsh desert climate makes water an absolutely critical resource for survival. Now, mining companies are moving in to extract lithium-rich brine water from the salt flats, creating what Flores describes as an existential threat to Indigenous ways of life.

Lithium has become increasingly valuable as a key component in electric vehicle batteries and renewable energy storage, driving global demand for extraction. However, the mining process requires enormous amounts of water in regions where it’s already scarce. For the Indigenous communities who have sustainably managed these lands for millennia, the potential loss of water access represents not just an environmental crisis, but cultural extinction.

This conflict highlights a troubling paradox in the green energy transition: the minerals needed for clean technology often come at enormous environmental and social costs to vulnerable communities. As the world rushes toward electrification, Indigenous voices like Flores are demanding that their rights and traditional knowledge be respected in decisions about their ancestral territories.