MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Chile looks to desalinization plants to supply water-short north

Although still costly desalinated water is an extended technology in the Middle East.

Chile’s Inter-ministry Committee of Hydro Resources thinks it has the solution for the water shortage problems facing the northern city of Copiapo (Region III).

The Committee, lead by Public Works Minister Sergio Bitar, is exploring placement of a seawater filtration plant in Copiapó -funded by private companies with the help of government concessions. The 4.5 billion US dollars project would offer its services to mining companies and other local businesses.

The plant would produce different grades of water, from drinking water to less-filtered irrigation water. Around 40% of the nearby city of Antofagasta’s water supply is already made up of desalinated water.

Business groups such as General Electric, Agbar, and Luksic have shown interest in creating and producing the “factory water.” And some 30 mines are interested in buying into the project, but official negotiations won’t begin until later in the year.

President Michelle Bachelet created the committee, which includes members of Chile’s mining, environment, energy, and economic ministries to name a few. One of its principle objectives is to create a new water resource system for Copiapó.

The city is currently “water-challenged” because of competing demands from the area’s mining industry.

More than 30 US dollars billion has been invested in Chile’s northern mining industries, with at least 8 billion located near Copiapó.

A single coastal water-filtering plant costs 50 million US dollars, said Richard Dixon, waters director for the Hatch engineering company. But if the water needs to be pumped to the Andean foothills, the cost could be more than 1 billion.

Dixon said that his company has conducted 15 studies in the last three years for the desalination sector in northern Chile.

In spite of the high costs, BHP Billiton's Escondida copper mine, Chile’s largest private copper mine, is using this technology. Its Puerto Coloso plant processes 3,200 litres of water per second and cost 3.5 billion US dollars.

“Desalinating seawater is a technologically complex alternative and is much more expensive due to the initial investment and energy costs the system would require,” said BHP. (Santiago Times)