Following this special week due to Acades event in Chile, we share our conversation with Carlos Goitia from Aguas Nuevas.
Carlos is a key figure in the Chilean water sector, a region that has become a global laboratory for water management due to its extreme geographical contrasts.
I wanted to have this conversation because Chile represents both a warning and a roadmap for the rest of the world.
With over 4,000 kilometers of coastline and the most arid desert on earth, they are forced to innovate out of necessity.
As we face increasing water stress globally, understanding how Chile balances industrial growth with community needs is essential for anyone working in this business.
The reality of a moving drought
Chile is currently witnessing a geographical shift in its water availability.
Historically, the north was the desert and the south was the water reservoir.
However, the “water stress” is now migrating toward the central regions where the majority of the population and businesses are concentrated.
Carlos explained that we can no longer rely on single sources like rainfall or mountain runoff. The climate has become too volatile.
In South America, phenomena like El Niño and La Niña are becoming more frequent and intense. One year a region faces a historic drought, and the next it deals with flooding.
This volatility is the primary driver for a diversified water portfolio where desalination acts as a stable, weather-independent baseline.
Desalination is no longer just for mining
For a long time, desalination in Chile was synonymous with the mining industry.
Because mining companies had the capital and a desperate need for water to process copper and lithium, they built the first large-scale plants.
They even developed the technology to pump water from sea level up to 5,000 meters into the Andes.
However, the trend is changing. While mining is decreasing its use of continental water and increasing its use of seawater, we are now seeing “desalination for people.”
Plants are being built to supply entire cities and small coastal communities. This shift proves that the technology has matured enough to be a viable solution for public consumption, not just industrial output.
Dealing with the myths of brine and energy
The biggest hurdle for new projects is often social acceptance rather than engineering.
Carlos was very clear about the two main “ghosts” that haunt desalination: brine discharge and energy consumption.
He shared a powerful perspective on brine: if managed correctly with proper diffusers, the impact area is no larger than a quarter of a football field in a vast ocean.
It is essentially seawater with a higher salt concentration, not a toxic chemical waste.
Regarding energy, he used a simple analogy: desalting enough water for a household is equivalent to running a space heater or an iron for an hour.
When we frame it that way, the “high cost” of water feels much more like a manageable trade-off for survival in a desert.
The bottleneck of bureaucracy and education
A recurring theme in our talk was the gap between technical readiness and administrative speed.
In Chile, a project can be environmentally sound and technically perfect, yet it might sit in a queue behind a shopping mall or a housing development.
There is also a significant need for better education among the authorities who evaluate these projects.
Carlos noted that while countries like Spain or Israel have decades of specialized university training in water, Latin America is still catching up.
This lack of specialized knowledge often leads to fear-based rejections or delays.
This is why associations like ACADES are so vital; they act as a bridge between the experts who have the data and the politicians who hold the pens.
Reflection
We often wait until the taps run dry to support “expensive” or “complex” infrastructure projects.
Chile has shown that the public-private model works and that the technology is ready. But as Carlos said, we need to stop looking at the sky for rain and start looking at the sea.
If your city faced a water crisis tomorrow, would you be willing to pay more for desalinated water, or would you prefer to wait for rain that might never come?
