Biblioteca Cuenca Copiapó

Water management problems in the Copiapó Basin, Chile: markets, severe scarcity and the regulator

Autor / Institución	Eduardo Bitran, Pedro Rivera and Marcelo J. Villena
Fecha	2014
Tipo	Artículo
Tabla de contenidos	Introduction, Water regulation in Chile, Water resources management in the Copiapó valley, The water market in Copiapó, What went wrong with water policy and management in Copiapó?, Concluding remarks and policy recommendations
Resumen	This research focuses on the determination of the factors that led to the failure of water management in the Copiapó Basin in Chile. Interestingly, the existence of full private ownership and free tradability of water rights has not prevented the overexploitation of groundwater resources. In the paper, firstly, water regulation and the role of the regulator in Chile are briefly discussed. Secondly, the evolution of water resources in the Copiapó region is characterized and analyzed, and the granting of water use rights in the basin in the last 30 years is concisely described. Thirdly, we examine and analyze prices and quantities traded in the water market of the Copiapó region. We will argue that this crisis is a consequence first of failure in regulatory implementation and second of an extremely rigid regulatory framework that leaves limited room for adjustment to changing conditions, especially regarding the emergence of new information concerning water availability. We believe this investigation is not only relevant for this case in particular, but also for other regions and countries where water markets are in place.
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Buscador de documentos históricos de la gestión hídrica de la cuenca de Copiapó, recopilados para el Proyecto Plan de Gestión Integrada para la Cuenca de Copiapó.