Chilean government looks for 100 per cent wastewater coverage in urban areas within five years

The Chilean government hopes to have all urban areas covered with wastewater treatment facilities within the next five years, according to a new report.

Chile's national sanitation service authority SISS has published a report detailing the government's expectations that water utilities are expected to reach 100 per cent wastewater treatment coverage in urban areas in five years. There is already considerable construction under way to implement the required infrastructure, and this is expected to move at pace over the next few years.

The country is known for its very distinctive shape, being 4,300 kilometres (2,700 mi) long but only 175 kilometres (109 mi) wide on average. This makes it the longest country in the world from north to south, with the fifth lengthiest coastline at over 78 thousand kilometres. The 2012 consensus showed there was an estimated 17,402,630 people living in the country, up from 15,116,435 in the 2002 census.

SISS has been undergoing several developments that they hope will bring the country's sewage treatment systems up to date with most modern countries. Work at two new wastewater treatment plants commenced last year, located in region IX's Lonquimay and region XV's Maullín, and normal operations resumed in region V's Emisario 2 plant, boosting coverage nationally to 94.2 per cent from 90.7 per cent in 2010.

An 8.8-magnitude earthquake hit the country's central region in February which damaged some parts of the infrastructure and set back the plans. The Concepción treatment plant was severely damaged, and this was repaired in May last year.

Despite the natural disaster, there were still some 268 wastewater treatment systems were operating across the country by the end of last year. Most of the systems used activated sludge treatment, which highlights the sophistication of the modern treatment plants.

Utilities are expected to invest US$965 million in the next 11 years, with 24 per cent going to sewage treatment, the same percentage to sanitation expansion, 50 per cent to potable water expansion and two per cent to other investments, according to the report.

Posted by Claire Manning