Water Governance in the Context of IWRM: Chile - Climate Change and Water Governance: Adaptive Capacity in Chile and Switzerland - page 137

Chapter 8
Water Governance in the Context
of IWRM: Chile

Abstract This chapter outlines the work completed for the ACQWA project on the
governance assessments for the Chilean case area and is used to provide vital back-
ground to the water governance situation and associated challenges. In the Chilean
case, significant challenges persist across the governance indicators, in particular in
relation to transparency and accountability. While water governance at the political
level is driven through a centralised approach, water management happens in the
private sphere and is driven by private interests. Despite the strong codified nature of
water governance through the Water Code, the weakness of enforcement and capac-
ity in the DGA means that provisions relating to protection of aquatic ecosystems can
effectively be ignored at the basin level. The market focus on water management has
meant that public institutions responsible for water rights management or water and
environmental issues have very limited capacity to address water issues.

Keywords Aconcagua • Region V • Chile • Water governance assessment • Legislative
and policy challenges • IWRM • Transparency and enforcement challenges

8.1 Development of Water Rights in Chile

Water rights in Chile have undergone a number of evolutionary steps over the past
century. The following section provides a brief overview of the development of
water rights in Chile according to the different periods of change and reform from
the Agrarian Reform of 1960 to the latest changes to the radical 1981 Water Code
that took place in 2005 (Bauer 2004 ; Carruthers 2001 ). Prior to the Agrarian Reform
in 1968, water had been a constitutional right of the state, with water users able to
obtain a right of use for this water. Water rights were linked to land rights, which
meant that a separate registry of water rights did not exist, but instead were assumed
to be part of the deed registries recording land ownership. In 1968, the agrarian
reform effectively divided land rights from water rights, yet during this period of