CHILE, THIRSTY FOR WATER SOLUTIONS

Did you know that Chile has suffered from more than a decade of drought? Are you interested in learning more about opportunities in Chile’s water infrastructure sector?

Climate change and a long drought period are key drivers behind Chile’s increased investment in water infrastructure projects. The country must create more alternatives for water supply in order to support economic development and increase living standards for the population as a whole.

In fact, the Executive President of Chile’s National Association of Sanitary Services Companies (Asociación Nacional de Empresas de Servicios Sanitarios) estimates that in the coming years, around US $10 billion will be required to have a sanitary industry of high standard, quality and continuity for Chilean cities.

Chile's current water infrastructure was built in 1990s, addressing the challenges of the time which was improving wastewater treatment systems. However, with new challenges and requirements, there’s a clear infrastructure gap – particularly in terms of clean drinking water and safe water sources.

This gap includes the construction of deep wells, new channels for agricultural irrigation, development of desalination plants for human and industrial consumption, water storage in aquifers, new reservoirs and dams.

Environmental impact is also an issue to consider. Chile’s water industry must improve its implementation of technologies for the reuse of wastewater and more investment will need to be made in this area.

The Director General of Aguas de Chile - who visited Australia in 2018 to learn about best practice water legislation and infrastructure - stated that Chile has a very high potential for desalination. Currently 300,000 m3 per day of water is purified from seawater. In the next 5 years, this figure could exceed one million m3 per day. This three-fold increase would require significant expertise to navigate the likely technical and legal challenges.

Chile's Ministry of Public Works has a large schedule of concession projects under the PPP model. Two of these are reservoir projects, which will be tendered 2023 and 2022 respectively.

• The Catemu Reservoir will have a volume of 180 hm3, a budget of USD $465.5 million and a total concession term of 22 years.
• The Zapallar Reservoir will have a volume of 80 hm3, a budget of USD $357 million and the total concession term is still under study.

In the Government’s recently released economic reactivation plan, a further 26 new reservoirs across nine regions to double the irrigated area of the country, from 1.2 million hectares to 2.4 million hectares, backed by an investment of US $6 billion have been announced. Further detail on these projects are still to be shared with the public.

Australia’s Rubicon Water is an excellent example of how Australian technology has been implemented to support Chile’s water industry.

Rubicon came to Chile almost a decade ago to automate and control the Elqui River Surveillance Board’s largest channels with their technology.

The Surveillance Board manages the water supply from the Elqui River to 5,000 farmers in the Coquimbo region of Chile, 500km north of Santiago, the country's capital. This area supports 23,000 hectares of important agricultural activity, producing grapes for export and for Pisco, Chile’s national spirit.

Fast forward to 2020, Rubicon has incorporated its technology and modernised multiple channels and gates along significant river basins all across the country.

This year even more gates with Rubicon repeater antenna and remote management technology will be installed across these projects, in addition to radio frequency communication systems, enhancing equity and transparency in water distribution.

Rubicon’s technology has been crucial differentiator in ensuring the efficient use of water resources, in a low rainfall area, for an economy oriented to intensive agriculture.

According to the Business Manager for Latin America of Rubicon, Gaston Sagredo, this venture that began in 2011 in Chile, now has a team of 22 people and a regional footprint including Peru, Argentina, Colombia, Brazil and Costa Rica. Rubicon sales have been increasing in the last two years, with sales of AUD $ 1.6 million in 2018 and AUD $ 6.7 million 2019, projecting sales over AUD $ 10 million for 2020. Rubicon expects that from 2021 onwards, their first projects in Peru, Colombia and Costa Rica will begin to take shape.

This is just one example of Australian technology making an important contribution Chile’s water resource management efforts, with the support of Austrade at the Australian Embassy. This technology is also being evaluated in areas of greater water availability in the south of the country, in order to optimise water usage, and it has been expanding its businesses to the rest of the Latin American markets using Chile as their platform.