One of the key demands of the movement to de-privatize water in Chile is that water should be recognized as a human right, which requires infrastructure that ensures clean water and access to it. In addition, we are organizing for the rights of nature and working toward the defense and restoration of hydrological systems not only for human consumption but also so water can flow freely.
It is from this perspective that networks such as the Movement for Water and Territories (MAT), of which I am a part and which links approximately one hundred social and territorial organizations in the territory called Chile, have sought to de-privatize water and decolonize our understanding of nature. We are pushing for an ecological transition that embraces social, climate and water justice and that includes the defense of rivers, lakes, lagoons, wetlands, salt flats, glaciers and other bodies of water.
Chile’s Political Constitution was adopted in the 1980s, and it establishes water in all of its forms as a national good for public use, while also allowing private ownership of it. This was enshrined in the 1981 Water Code, adopted during the civil-military-business dictatorship. Chile’s Water Code created a water market and made water a tradable commodity that can be bought, sold, leased and even mortgaged.
Private ownership of water is made possible through the sale of usage rights. The government grants these rights free of charge and in perpetuity to private parties linked to extractivist industries, such as mining, agribusiness and the forestry industry. Today there are landowners who lack water and others who monopolize water rights without owning land.