In the early 1990s, Chile’s main environmental deficit was not air quality. It was the pollution of its waters. The beaches could not be used due to the very high content of faecal coliforms existing at sea by discharges of sewage. The Mapocho River and others were open-cut sewers.
As a result of the decision and political vision, the Chileans made the largest environmental investment in history. More than US$2.5 billion was invested in wastewater treatment systems. Industries had to reconvert processes, incorporate clean production systems or make their own treatment plants to meet new emission standards. The collateral benefits are many: public health, agriculture, tourism, in short, decontaminated environment. All in less than 10 years. There are not many countries that can tell something similar. A public policy was thought and developed, and then all public and private, in an unprecedented alliance, we are engaged in compliance. Today, Chile treats about 99% of the city’s sewage served by healthcare companies.
It is Chile’s greatest environmental achievement and is worth remembering on this date.
Today we face a new challenge. The biggest and deepest drought since we had records. It is a fact that there are rural or semi-rural towns in the Metropolitan Region and other regions of the central area with serious supply problems. It is a silent, hidden pandemic that aggravates the situation of poverty and helplessness.
In Santiago- as in all urban areas of Chile – water is in all homes permanently. Globally, only 27% of the population receives drinking water from networks on an ongoing basis. Chile is an extraordinary exception: 99% of its urban population receives safe and continuous water from water, which has remained in the context of drought.
It is not the merit of one or two governments, they are decades of public policies aimed at extending the supply of health services to the population.
In the structural drought we live in, together with the Covid 19 pandemic, one may ask what is the public policy on drinking water supply for Chile in 2030? The industrial organization of the sector dates from 1989, as amended in 1997. In those days there was no permanent drought, there was no talk of climate change. When the environment undergoes transformation, it is for States to adopt policies that take care of the transformations.
We have serious problems, structural drought will require the execution of costly investment projects. Desalination plants, large drives and conductions, substantial increase in storage capacity, etc. We’ll have to rethink the cities. Squares and parks will have to forget about the pasture and replace it with vegetation typical of arid areas. Individual consumption will have to be reduced, understanding that drinking water is a scarce commodity and difficult to produce and obtain. Also, we will have to think about the reuse of the waters. The circular economy is a new paradigm to be implemented.
In this context, public-private cooperation, in which the State defines policies and monitors their compliance and companies make investments and operate systems, will be a tremendous tool for Chile to remain successful. But the higher costs of new investments should not be borne by the poorest. The current consumption subsidy policy will not be kept. Measures such as the introduction of consumer block tariffs will have to be considered. In areas of the country where economies of scale do virtually no exist or poverty levels are well above average, it will have to be the state that finances the investment, without its cost being transferred to the population (such as the Atacama desalination plant).
The call is for us to formulate long-term policies among all. Let’s not let covid 19’s pandemic deflect us from it. Let us not adopt short-term policies as if we did not live the permanent drought. I have read to parliamentarians who rightly, in my opinion, say that the commercial aviation industry is an industry to be looked after. The healthcare industry, too.
The content poured into this opinion column is the sole responsibility of its author, and does not necessarily reflect the editorial line or position of El Mostrador.
