Water Governance in the Context of IWRM: Chile - Climate Change and Water Governance: Adaptive Capacity in Chile and Switzerland - page 162

Aconcagua region, 1996/1997, 2002, 2008 and most recently 2010/2011, the most
severe were those in 1996/1997 and 2010/2011. While stakeholders have known
drought periods to occur about twice per decade, recently, an increase has been
observed. In 2002, 2008 and then in 2010, an official drought zone was declared
by the President with the support of the DGA. In 2010, the drought zone was
declared on 25 November, while in 2008, it was January 1. The earlier the declara-
tion, the more the DGA can try to mitigate impacts of the drought, which affect
agricultural stakeholders and utilities most severely. In 2010, a significant reduc-
tion in snow fall, despite rain volumes remaining constant, was seen as the pri-
mary cause of the drought.
Not all sections of the basin are evenly affected by the drought impacts, due to
the high hydrological and geographic diversity in the basin (see Chap. 4 ) . While the
third section is most sensitive to drought and the second section the least sensitive.
Petorca and La Ligua are some of the worst affected areas, as they do not contain
any surface water, but instead rely on groundwater rights extracted through deep
wells. The impact of severe droughts, such as 1996, 2002, 2008 and the most recent
2010 droughts have impacted drinking water distribution. In response, the DGA
was called on, through the official drought declaration, to identify the most impor-
tant needs and distribute water in equal quantities for drinking water and agricul-
ture. In the 2008 drought, there were water transfers by truck from Algibe to Ligua,
and from Cabildo to Ligua, which is the capital of Petorca province. At the time of
interview, the expectation was that this would need to be repeated in the 2010/2011
drought. There were also transfers to Limache, and a transfer from Quillota to
Marga-Marga. The summer droughts are also aggravated by the large population
surges in the coastal cities of Valparaiso, Viña del Mar and Reñaca during the
warmer months.
Drought impacts are exacerbating issues of general over-exploitation of water
resources in northern and central areas of Chile that had already led to decreasing
levels of water availability. For regantes (farmers with water rights to irrigate) each
drought period has meant a significant reduction in allocated rights. A number of
instances of illegal abstractions from the canals were reported during interview.
These illegal abstractions can take multiple forms, including the placing of pumps
in the canals to extract their full rights allocation, or even position glass sheets in the
canals so that the water can be 'invisibly' siphoned off. Often during such drought
periods, the water might not reach the last farmer in a canal (as in the case of 2010
drought), even after interventions have been made. In addition to climate-related
drought impacts, there are a number of aggravating factors that in themselves inten-
sify drought related impacts, and are themselves aggravated during drought periods.
Firstly, irrigators, utilities and water managers alike refer to the amount of water that
is lost to the ocean due to the lack of storage infrastructure in the basin.
The Aconcagua is one of the only basins in Chile not regulated by a major dam
(the only major dam in the region is in Los Aromas, in Section 4). This is partly
attributed to the fact that the region has been historically known for sufficient hydro-
logical resources and highly suitable climatic qualities for agricultural production,
a situation that over-exploitation and diminishing contribution from snow pack and