Chilean committee finalizes guidelines to upgrade rural water system

Chile's senate has reported that the public works committee is in the final stages of drafting guideline studies for an upgrade to the country's rural potable water systems program, before the legal text can be sent for discussion and voting.

Renewal and expansion of rural potable water systems is of great importance, as it affects regions providing services to close to 1.7mn people.

"It's an ambitious project that has to do with how licenses are managed, what the requirements are, how partnerships are formed and how they are financed," said senator Juan Antonio Coloma, adding that the idea is to upgrade potable water systems to capture, distribute and treat the water available in rural areas.

Key aspects included in the legal document, which seeks to regulate utility services for access and sanitation of potable water in rural areas, include:

• To strengthen the management capacities of local organizations, preserving the participative process and community management
• To establish the rights and obligations of local organizations, as well as the rights and obligations of local partners
• To protect the land, now overseen by local communities so that they alone provide services in these territories.

More details can be found here in Spanish.

The country's rural potable water program began in March 1964 with investments from the Inter-American Development Bank IDB. Now in operation for more than 50 years, Chile's rural water program has invested close to US$1.5bn in rural water infrastructure.

Investments are provided by the public works ministry along with regional development department. Project management is undertaken through direct partnerships with water utilities.

The upgrade of the rural potable water systems program comes at a crucial time, as Latin American development bank CAF recently published a report calling for countries to create better designs for potable water services in rural areas.