Water utilities advance desal plants in Chile's north

Water utilities Aguas del Altiplano and Aguas Antofagasta, which serve Chile's northernmost Arica y Parinacota, Tarapacá and Antofagasta regions, are planning new desalination projects to secure water supply for clients who largely live in the Atacama desert, the world's driest.

During Vostock Capital's Desalination Latin America conference in Santiago, Aguas Antofagasta's project director Víctor Gutiérrez said that 53% of the utility's current potable water output comes from its Taltal and La Chimba desalination plants.

La Chimba, with a capacity of 956l/s, is the largest desalination plant for potable water production in Latin America. Gutiérrez said his company is planning a US$90mn expansion for US$90mn, which could produce 380l/s initially and increase capacity to 639l/s.

The representative added that related studies are carried out and the prequalification process would start soon.

With this expansion, La Chimba would supply all the water regional capital Antofagasta city needs.

Gutiérrez also said that civil works for the US$40mn Tocopilla plant have been completed. Operations will begin in November with an initial capacity of 75l/s, which would later increase to 100l/s.

Asked by BNamericas if Aguas Antofagasta could expand the supply of desalinated potable water to the city of Calama, Gutiérrez was skeptical, because the city is over 2,000m above sea level. Calama suffered a week-long water cut in January due to heavy rains

"The most solid option we currently have is to boost our filtering systems to face high turbidity episodes," he said.

Aguas Nuevas' head of client services, Sergio Fuentes, said at the conference that subsidiary Aguas del Altiplano is carrying out designs and studies for a 600l/s desalination plant for the city of Arica.

Currently, he said, Aguas del Altiplano still uses subterranean sources for its entire potable water production. But some plants, he emphasized, are already using desalination technologies, such as reverse osmosis, because subterranean waters in the desert environment carry high amounts of arsenic and other materials.