Chile
Chile’s population already enjoys high levels of drinking water and sewerage services. However, a large part of the population in semi-concentrated and dispersed rural areas is still not adequately served.
In terms of contextual data, 98.8% of the urban population and only 52.8% of the rural population have access to a public drinking water network, and of the latter, access to public services exists in concentrated rural areas where rural drinking water programmes were initiated several decades ago and are practically fully covered[1].
The Cooperation Fund for Water and Sanitation (FCAS) has a programme in Chile called “Support for the reduction of the deficit in drinking water and sanitation coverage in the framework of the Millennium Development Goal targets for Chile”, with a grant of €6.8 million, initiated in 2014 with the Undersecretariat for Regional and Administrative Development (SUBDERE) of the Ministry of the Interior and Public Security.
The aim of the programme is to reduce inequalities and improve the quality of life of the population in dispersed rural areas of Araucanía, where a large part of the country’s most vulnerable population group of Mapuche ethnicity is concentrated. To this end, the project has supported the construction of drinking water, sewerage and sanitary cabins (rooms with bathrooms and kitchens) in a number of rural communities (in total, 14 communities in 11 communes), which will enable the environmental clean-up of bodies of water and soils, and the comprehensive strengthening of community organisations, technical teams in the region and the beneficiary communes. The intervention includes a support and training programme for communities, schools and water committee operators for the sustainable use of infrastructures.
As of December 2020, all the sewerage and sanitation projects had been completed, in the absence of some pending sanitary resolutions (an administrative procedure granted by the Regional Ministerial Secretariat of Health). The programme’s drinking water projects were also all completed or were nearing completion, with the exception of the works corresponding to the community of El Escorial (commune of Melipeuco) due to the administrative procedures associated with the rights to use the water catchment point. Subsequently, at the time of resuming the works, the COVID-19 pandemic began, which has forced the programme’s execution period to be extended to 2021.
[1] Census data 2017. National Institute of Statistics. Chile.
