"We drink seawater"

water injustices associated with desalinated water for human consumption in the city of Antofagasta

Abstract

The increasing water shortages along Chile, and the consequent pressure on the country’s continental water sources, has resulted in the consolidation of seawater desalination as the Chilean State’s main strategy for supplying drinking water to coastal populations in arid areas. Despite the growing expansion of this technology, the social implications of desalinated water distribution for human consumption in Chilean cities have not yet been studied. In this work we fill this gap by analyzing the case of Antofagasta, a city that is supplied both by mountain sources and by desalinated water from the largest desalination plant for human consumption in Latin America. For our analysis we use the theoretical framework of water justice, which we operationalize through the dimensions of recognition, participation, and distribution. Based on a survey applied on 1,150 households, our results reveal that there are injustices in all 3 dimensions analyzed, associated with both regional dynamics, which result in the city of Antofagasta being deprived of its mountain sources, and domestic dynamics, which show that Antofagasta's inhabitants live different water realities according to the water source they receive and their socioeconomic level.