Water supply and sanitation in Chile were once considered efficient and equitable but in 2022 Chile struggled to reliably provide water throughout the country due to drought. Chile's water resources have been strained by the Chilean water crisis, which was partially caused by a continuing megadrought that began in 2010, along with an increased demand for agricultural and other commercial interests.
Chile began rationing water in April 2022. Chile's water and sanitation sector distinguishes itself in a few key ways. First, all urban water companies are privately owned or operated (the only exception is SMAPA), and water was defined as a private commodity in the 1980 Constitution of Chile. Second, the Chilean government instituted a subsidy for water costs in 1990 for citizens located in impoverished regions. Third, Chile became the first Latin American Country to achieve 100% of its population using basic water sanitation in 2016.
Access
In 2015, 99% of the population of Chile had access to "improved" water, of which 99.6% were in urban and 93% in rural areas, and over 180 thousand people lacked access to "improved" water. For sanitation in Chile, in 2015, 99% of the population had access to "improved" sanitation, with 100% and 90%, in urban and rural areas, respectively. Around 170 thousand still lacked access to it.
WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme for Water Supply and Sanitation According to the 2010 data from the WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme (JMP) (see below), Chilean urban areas with improved water coverage stood at 96% coverage and improved sanitation was also 96%, which is one of the highest levels in Latin America.
Urban (89% ofthe population) Rural (11% ofthe population) Total Water Improved water source 99% 75% 96% Piped on premises 99% 47% 93% Sanitation Improved sanitation 98% 83% 96%Sewerage (2006 JMP survey & census data) 89% 5% 78%
One of the reasons for the high coverage rates in Chile is the early effort to extend and improve infrastructure (see below). As a result, in 1990, 97% of the urban population was already connected to water, and 84% of the population to sanitation., p. 74
Service quality Since 1990 Service quality has been controlled by SISS. The agency examines if the services comply with the Chilean norm NCH 409, which was modified for the last time in 2005 and includes standards concerning water quality, water pressure, and continuity between others.
At the beginning of the 1990s, there were several problems regarding the chlorination systems of some water service providers. Consequently, in 1991 20% of the companies did not comply with the bacteriological norms. In 2006, this share had dropped to about 1%. In the same period, compliance with disinfection norms increased from 89% to more than 99%.
Water supply is continuous (24/7), both in urban and concentrated rural areas where water pressure is adequate.
The sector currently undergoes a complete wastewater treatment investment program to treat 100% of all collected municipal wastewater in 2012. This share has increased from 8% in 1989 to 82% in 2006.
Water use
Water use has gradually decreased since 1998. An estimated 96% of water consumption is measured, resulting in precise information concerning water consumption. In 2006, the total water consumption was 958 million m3. Therefore, each customer used on average of 19.9 m3 per month, resulting in 196 litres daily p/capita. Water consumption is highest in the capital region, ranging from 44m³/month (Aguas Cordillera) to 125m³/month (Aguas de Manquehue).
History and recent developments The Chilean water supply and sanitation sector today are recognized with one of the best coverage and quality levels in Latin America. One of the reasons was a gradual and lasting extension of infrastructure which began in the 1970s. In the 1990s, most utilities improved their economic efficiency and became self-financing companies, some of which have been transferred to the private sector.
Before 1977: A fragmented sector structure Before 1977, urban water and sewer services in Chile were provided by a multitude of public entities. The largest entity was the Sanitation Department (Dirección de Obras Sanitarias, DOS) of the Ministry of Public Works, which was in charge of service provision in towns outside of the two largest cities, Santiago and Valparaíso. In these two cities, municipal utilities were responsible for service provision. The Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development also had water and sanitation departments. To guarantee its operation, the service was directly subsidised by the national government.
1977–1988: The National Water Company SENDOS In 1977, the national public water and sanitation company SENDOS (Servicio Nacional de Obras Sanitarias) was created, which had 11 regional branches. The municipal utilities in Santiago and Valparaíso were corporatized and modernized. During that time employment in the utilities was significantly reduced., p. 21
The public utilities for Santiago and Valparaíso, EMOS (Empresa Metropolitana de Obras Sanitarias) and ESVAL (Empresa Sanitaria de Valparaiso) were strengthened through loans from the World Bank during that period. In parallel, the government of General Augusto Pinochet privatized the electricity and telecommunications sector., p. 14
Water coverage during this period increased substantially from 78% in 1976 to 98% in 1988. Sewer coverage increased from 52% in 1976 to 82% in 1988.
1988–1998: Corporatization and regulation
In 1988, the Chilean people denied General Augusto Pinochet a new term in a referendum, thus passing a key step in the country's transition to democracy. Unlike the privatization and liberalization in other infrastructure sectors, reform of the water and sanitation sector was thus not imposed by the military government but initiated in a climate of democracy.
Between 1988 and 1990, a number of legal reforms and the creation of new institutions had two principal objectives: The service providers should become self-financing through higher tariffs which represent the real costs of the services and more efficient performance Water supply and sanitation coverage and quality should become universal
Therefore, in December 1988 The General Water and Sanitation Law (Ley General de Servicios Sanitarios) allowed the granting of 13 regional concessions to public, private or mixed shareholding companies in each of Chile's regions. In 1990 the regulatory agency SISS (Superintendencia de Servicios Sanitarios) was created through a separate law. An innovative model of tariff regulation was borrowed from the Chilean electricity and telecommunications sector: Efficient cost levels were estimated for an imaginary model company and used as a benchmark to set tariffs for the utilities., p. 17 Means-tested subsidies (i.e. subsidies that are granted only to those that demonstrably have limited means) were also introduced at the same time to cushion the effect of the tariff increase on the poor. The legal framework with some modifications is still in force today.
Initially, the regional companies remained public, but the intent was to prepare them for privatization. During that period they achieved financial self-sufficiency, were granted tariff increases, improved their efficiency and increased coverage. The regional companies were also transformed into private law companies (Sociedades Anónimas). Investments increased from less than 80 million US dollars annually on average during the 1980s, p. 25 to US$260m in 1998. However, regional utilities still did not have sufficient resources to expand wastewater treatment.
1998-2004: Privatization Under the government of Christian Democrat President Eduardo Frei, the law was amended in 1998 to promote private-sector participation. The stated motive was to increase efficiency, improve service quality and mobilize capital to extend wastewater treatment. Subsequently, all regional branches of SENDOS, as well as the water and sanitation companies of Santiago and Valparaiso, were privatized. Staffing was further reduced, new complaints management procedures were introduced and the share of collected wastewater treated increased significantly., p. 31
Contrary to the case of many other Latin American cities where the private sector was asked to provide services, the Chilean service providers were financially self-sufficient when the private sector took responsibility for them. The public companies had been prepared to gradually improve efficiency and profitability since the legal reforms of 1988–1990. This may explain the stable process of private sector participation compared to other Latin American cases.For example, private water concessions in Buenos Aires, Argentina, many other cities in Argentina, as well as in La Paz and Cochabamba, Bolivia, were terminated before their term expired A factor that explains the continuity of sector policies during various administrations is the fact that all Presidents since Chile's return to democracy in 1990 belonged to the same Coalition of Parties for Democracy.
The privatization was carried out in stages, beginning with the five largest of the 13 regional water companies serving more than 75% of users. Because of the staging, it is possible to compare the performance of the privatized and public utilities at that time. This comparison shows that from 1998 to 2001 private companies invested substantially more than public companies and - unlike the public companies - increased their labor productivity significantly. Tariffs increased for both types of companies, but more so for the privatized ones. However, according to one study, "in Chile a social consensus emerged that has made the higher water rates acceptable given the improvements in service quality and the addition of new services such as wastewater treatment.", p. 4
The participation of the private sector occurred in two different ways. From 1998 to 2001, when the biggest companies were privatized, the majority of their shares were sold to private actors. The government then decided to not continue to sell parts of the companies, but to transfer the operation rights of the companies to private actors for 30 years between 2001 and 2004. This latter way of private sector participation, also known as a concession, differs substantially from selling shares of the companies because the infrastructure remains the property of the Chilean state. All seven companies which were privatized in the second way merged in 2005, assuming the name ESSAN.
According to the World Bank's Private Participation in Infrastructure database, investment commitments by the private sector in Chile's water and sanitation sector reached US$5.7 billion in 1993–2005 through 20 projects, with US$4 billion of commitments made in 1999 alone through 4 projects. 7 projects were divestitures, 10 were concessions and 3 were greenfield projects in wastewater treatment plants.
The Socialist Presidents Ricardo Lagos (2000–2006) and Michelle Bachelet (2006–2010, 2014–2018) maintained the basic institutional structure of the sector established under previous governments based on private service provision, means-targeted subsidies and regulation by a public, autonomous regulator.
Further changes in ownership