La memoria del agua 
Tracing Water's Presence and Absence in the Atacama Desert 
 
Water is the condition for life on Earth. From the once-snowcapped peaks of the Andes to the salt-crusted lakes of the Atacama salt flats, this book traces the presence and absence of water in the world’s driest nonpolar desert. In conversation with local scientists, guides, and Indigenous waterkeepers, La Memoria del Agua asks: How does water move through this place? Who has access to it, and who decides how that access is distributed? When water disappears—or is forcibly disappeared—where does it go, and what traces does it leave behind? 

 
Product information 
Authors: Sonnet Phelps and Giulia Pompilj 
Graphic design: Victoria Plasteig
Photography: Giulia Pompilj and Eduardo Seymour
Funding: Stimuleringsfonds
Publication date: 23 October 2025
Language: US English
Print length: 220 pages 
ISBN: 9789090410876
Dimensions: 17 x 1.9 x 24 cm
 
Memoria del agua honors the life-sustaining intelligence of water and the communities—human and more-than-human—who live with, learn from, and defend it. A portion of this book's proceeds were donated to Equinluz, Karen Luza's organisation supporting community water activism, as well as equine therapy for children with special needs, in San Pedro de Atacama region.