Bridges and Barriers to Adaptive Capacity - Climate Change and Water Governance: Adaptive Capacity in Chile and Switzerland - page 198

Table 11.1 Detailed qualitative analysis of key barriers and bridges to water management solutions for adaptive capacity building across different scales in the
Chilean case

Major barriers and bridges to adaptation: Chile
Barriers Scale Bridges

National
level

Informality, weakness and impotency of ministry and regulatory
bodies (Ministry of Public Works and General Directorate (DGA)
of Water, Ministry of Environment etc.) to regulate water uses
and enforce weak protection provisions, leading to environmental
degradation and over-exploitation of water resources

Promotion and development of efficient use of water in the
agricultural sector, through government support and
subsidies
Through the Water Code, the legislative framework has
provided a level of legal certainty on water rights that has
successfully funneled investment into both water services
and provision (coverage is at between 83 and 100 %) and
contributed to the country's economic development, thereby
improving the state's ability to finance a number of public
services and infrastructural investments related to water

Informality of governance approach means weakened NGO's
tend to take up the role of defending against environmental
destruction, enforcement of protection provisions and
developing more long term concepts for sustainable
development and watershed management
Lack of institutional capacity to improve levels of transparency
and information on water rights, which could serve as the
basis of a planning strategy for long term climate impacts

Glacier monitoring programme in place in the DGA represents
an initial awareness of the need to improve information and
monitoring on climate change impacts

Challenge in developing a culture of water conservation and
awareness around water scarcity

Growing consciousness about climate change as an issue that will
need more attention, even if at the moment from a very technical
perspective (i.e. no attention paid to institutional adaptation)

Economic priorities and ideology of water as an economic good
for development (commoditised through water rights) trumps
environmental concerns and the integration of ecosystem
health as a water stakeholder, undermining SES resilience in
the face of longer term uncertainty and change.

Awareness and interest in moving towards IWRM, but focus on
hard infrastructural mechanisms as a means to do this (i.e.
dam building)
Independent research bodies (e.g. UN ECLAC) conduct studies
to isolate factors that have led to successes elsewhere in
Chilean water management (e.g. drinking water provision),
signalling a potential to link these self -assessing factors to
adaptations to climate change