Rural Water Management in Chile

What is it about?

In 1960, only 6% of the rural population had an adequate water supply system. At present rural water coverage has increased to 53%; however, considering only concentrated and semi-concentrated rural towns, 88% the rural population has access to water supply systems. This increase is the result of Chile’s national Rural Potable Water (APR) program, which has provided rural water infrastructure to concentrated and semi-concentrated rural towns. This infrastructure is managed by user committees or cooperatives, which operate and invest in maintenance, improvement and expansion of the systems. Over time several APR have presented problems in supplying potable water in quantity, quality and continuity. This is due to the lack of management capacity. This chapter presents an overview of Chile’s national Rural Potable Water (APR) program and identifies its actual challenges and necessary reformulations.

Featured Image

Why is it important?

Although the APR organizations show high performance indicators in the various aspects of providing drinking water to rural populations, certain aspects could be improved in order to deliver a more sustainable and quality service. This publcation identifies the major challenges which would allow these systems to function more sustainably.