Chile: the government analyzes a tax on excessive water consumption

Despite the fact that 96% of water consumption in the country is by the agricultural and industrial sectors, Minister Juan Carlos García announced that the measure of a water overconsumption tax has not been ruled out by the Government.

The statements of the highest authority of the Ministry of Public Works (MOP) came about World Water Day, following his visit to the progress made at the Padre Hurtado Drinking Water Plant, located in the commune of La Reina in the eastern sector of the Metropolitan Region and 13 kilometers from the city center. This plant seeks to provide a solution in the short term for millions of people in the communes of Ñuñoa, Providencia, Las Condes, La Reina, Lo Barnechea and Vitacura, in the eastern sector.

As part of World Water Day, Minister Juan Carlos García stated that, “It is a day when it is not only an institutional awareness, but also of individual, industrial and country awareness. Water is a human right and as a Government we will work tirelessly to ensure it. However, beyond the efforts we make as a government and as a State, we have to make a joint effort as a society.” “At this time, with the works we are visiting today, we can supply the city of Santiago with peace of mind,” he said.

He added that the government is evaluating “taxing the excessive consumption of water by families if that is necessary,” he added that, “what is consumed more on one side is not consumed on the other,” the minister said.

I assume that, “it is not a radical measure, it is a progressive measure that already exists, for example, in electricity consumption in winter periods”. “However, we will never be calm for water scarcity. We have to observe the winter rains and, from that, inform the public how we are in the summer of 2023,” said García.

With regard to water consumption, the MOP announced that they asked “the Superintendent of the Health Service to begin analyzing a proposal that can be analyzed in order to take measures that cannot only be reactive, but that we can also anticipate those periods that may be of water shortage later”. manifested.

Water rationing

Other discussions that have been discussed in the Government are water rationing for the communes in the eastern part of the metropolitan region, one of the wealthiest sectors of the city.

Regarding the use of water in this area, Environment Minister Maisa Rojas said on her twitter account that “indeed, the communes of Las Condes, Vitacura and Lo Barnechea consume between 320-500 liters/inhabitant/day (national average approx. 160)”, these communes are part of the eastern area.

The water crisis affecting the country has made water rationing an ever closer possibility. Even certain authorities have already raised the idea that the measure should not be for certain communes in the Metropolitan region, but that it should be extended to other regions.

The governor of the metropolitan region Claudio Orrego proposed “a light rationing, a moderate and a strict rationing. That is, three levels that will indicate how often rationing is given, and what will be the coverage. It is not the same to do rationing every 12 days in three communes, than doing it every five days throughout the region,” he said in Diario Financiero.

“It is very likely that the most vulnerable sector and the one that may first have rationing is the eastern sector, which also coincides with being the one that consumes the most water per capita. If this continues and there is no rain in winter and high temperatures are maintained, one cannot rule out not only rationing in the eastern sector, but also for the entire city. And that is of the highest critical level,” said the governor.

Other of Orrego's interventions on the topic was that, “With regard to climate change there is always the excuse that there is someone more responsible than one. We must all be aware here. We have to change everyone... Companies, the State and also the people.” “The fact that the State has not issued regulations for the use of gray water in 3 years is not only a political fault, it is also an ethical fault,” he said in national media.

Situation in Valparaiso

On the other hand, Valparaíso is one of the regions affected by water consumption, which even has inhabitants without water, using only cistern trucks, as is the case of the Petorca commune, located in the Valparaíso region and 120 kilometers from the city. The regional governor of Valparaíso Rodrigo Mundaca clarified that, “today the concentration of consumptive water use is mainly in the hands of the agricultural sector, between 74 and 75%, in the hands of the industrial sector, the mining sector and a much smaller percentage is in the hands of the health sector,” said the governor. regional in True Lies.

Mundaca spoke about the care of water by citizens and found it strange that this responsibility is not with “the same emphasis with the extractive industry, particularly the agricultural sector, the agro-export sector,” the governor said.

“There is a recent study by four geographers from the University of Chile who point out, for example, that in the province of Petorca, between 2012 and 2018, 8.75 billion pesos were spent buying fresh water and leasing cistern trucks to meet the consumption of 70,000 people living in the province of Petorca,” Mundaca said.

A study by Dr. Kathleen Whitlock, a researcher at the Interdisciplinary Center for Neuroscience at the University of Valparaiso, revealed that Valparaiso's drinking water is contaminated with pesticides and cyanuric acid.

James McPhee, director of the Advanced Center for Water Technologies at the University of Chile, in conversation with Biobío, stressed that “behavior change by the population. To realize that water is not unlimited.”

One of the solutions to the water crisis has to be multidimensional. From the technological point of view for more effective work for new water supplies as well as the management of authorities.

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