[Project] Integrated Management Plan for the Copiapó Basin

Finances: Dirección General de Agua

Start date: August 2014

Extension: 12 months

 

/ Facing water scarcity in the Copiapó basin, the Public Works Ministry (MOP) through the water authority Dirección General de Aguas (DGA) has worked together with CSIRO to generate a development strategy for the basin, that integrates all the involved actors and that grants an appropriate method and that can be projected to other areas in Chile with similar challenges.

With this scenario, DGA and CSIRO, organizations that have been working together for a couple years now in the area, agreed to carry out the Project called “Integrated Management Plan for the Copiapó Basin”, which was divides in Fase 1 and Fase 2.

 

General objectives:

• To develop a strategy for the Copiapó basin, established in common agreement with different participant actors, which considers mining, agriculture, environment and social values.
• To develop a framework and a general methodology for the integrated planning for basins, which is adequate to be applied at a national level, and it must be aligned with the National Strategy for Water Resources.

Fase 1 was seeking to analyze the background of water resources in the Copiapó river basin, and to develop Reference Terms in which the project would be management in general, for example, the necessary sub-projects to achieve objectives.

Fase 2 corresponds to the implementation of these activities.

 

FASE 1

General objetives (began in August 2014)

• To support the Chilean government and all actores (and/or users) of the Copiapó basin in the establishment of adequate governance structures for the execution of the global project.
• To support the Chilean government and the Copiapó actors in the establishment of research programs that approach the key work areas identifies for the Copiapó basin.

Specific objectives

• To establish agreements and structures for the governance of the project.
• To promote the project among the key actors, carrying out a tour of presentations.
• To secure the necessary funds for the sub-projects teams.
• To prepare the Reference Terms for the sub-projects.

 

Working together

The alliance between the DGA and CSIRO began a few years ago thanks to the Australian Government funding through their Public Sector Linkages Program, which has as an objective to strengthen the links in the public sector between Australia and similar institutions in similar partner countries.

These resources allowed CSIRO to develop in 2012 a prospection study that included DGA’s support, titled “Copiapó river Basin, chile – an analysis of water scarcity regarding water rights, industrial uses and social requirements”. The results materialized in a series of technical specifications developed by CSIRo and a series of necessary activities to face the challenge of water management in the Copiapó river basin.

These specifications materialized in a fore-project for the participatory water management in the Copiapó river basin to avoid scenarios of scarcity of water supply and water quality problems.

 

Download the GRRH documents:

Integrated Management Plan Fase 1 2015
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