Water Governance in the Context of IWRM: Chile - Climate Change and Water Governance: Adaptive Capacity in Chile and Switzerland - page 138

transference, there was no requirement to register the new water rights that were
now separated from the land they had originally belonged to. Within the Aconcagua,
the majority of land (or parcel) owners originate from the period of agrarian reform,
yet while the land rights were transferred, the water rights followed without
registration.
Beyond the basic nature of Chilean water rights, there are important distinctions
concerning different kinds of water rights, namely whether they are permanent, eventual,
provisional, continuous or non-continuous, consumptive or non-consumptive (Water
Code, Art. 12), which allows the water rights holder different levels of security and
timing. Permanent water rights are an expression of volume per time that are granted
within the guaranteed flows of the water body (Water Code, Art. 16, 17). Continuous
rights can theoretically be used 24 h a day of the 365 days a year (Water Code, Art.
19) while discontinuous rights are only allowed to be used during predetermined
periods. However, the official assumption for calculating these rights is that they are
not used permanently, but according to different factors of use, which are used to
calculate the level of 'real' exploitation with the surface and ground waters of a
basin. For surface water, eventual rights are those rights which are granted beyond
the limit of secure water in the river. These rights are less secure than permanent
because if flow goes below the average level of the river (e.g. in times of drought)
then these rights cannot be used. The difference in qualification between permanent
and eventual rights is the time that a rights holder is allowed to use it. Within the
Water Code, there is an express article (Art. 18) that prohibits water from reservoirs
( las aguas lacustres o embalsadas ) being subject to eventual rights.
In restricted zones (such as a depleted aquifer or groundwater zone) all new
water rights are allocated as 'provisional' rights , with a set of conditions (Water
Code Art. 62; Resolution 425, Art. 30-41) that restricts how they can be used for
the proceeding 5 years. After 5 years, if the rights holder can show that their rights
did not impact the aquifer, then these rights can be converted into permanent
rights (DGA source). A further classification is between consumptive and non-
consumptive water rights (Water Code, Art. 13, 14, 15). Consumptive rights allows
for the total consumption of the allocated water by the water rights holder (Water
Code, Art. 13), while non-consumptive rights requires rights holders to use their
water rights in a non-consumptive fashion, returning the water rights to the water
body for usage by other water rights holders according to predetermined
standards of quantity and quality (Art. 14).

8.2 Chilean Assessment

In 1981, during the early years of the Pinochet regime, a new water code was
passed (1981 Water Code), that was heavily informed by neo-liberal economic
doctrine. After an acrimonious 15 year struggle to amend the 1981 Water Code, a
set of minor reforms were passed in 2005 that aims to address issues concerning
externalities caused by water market transactions, the hording of water rights from