Water Code Reform

During March 2011, a draft bill was introduced through parliamentary motion, initiating the discussion of a comprehensive amendment of the Water Code.

During its legislative discussion, the project has been subject to significant changes through substitutive indications submitted in 2014 by the Bachelet government, and in 2019 by the Piñera government, and successive changes to its legislative priority. Currently, the draft bill is being discussed in the Agriculture Committee of the Senate.

The current version of the draft bill intends to amend the concept of water rights in order to make them temporary; limit the exercise of some water rights on scarcity situations; establish caducity hypothesis for water rights; facilitate intervention of hydrological areas by the State; and reform the fees for non-use framework.

Given the complexity of the project, we will report and analyze the content of the draft bill and its legislative proceedings, through this website.