Thames Water Chile

completed

Aguas Nuevo Sur Maule (ANSM or the company) provides water and sanitation services for the VII Region’s 160,990 clients. The region had a total population of 920,000 in the year 2001. Of the urban population of approximately 590,000 inhabitants, ANSM provides over 99% with potable water services. ANSM has water rights for 124 different sources totaling 4,584 liters/second. The majority of these sources (91%) are groundwater, with the remainder being surface water rights. These water rights, which are the equivalent of 144 million m3 of water per year, cover the region’s consumption requirements as of today about four times over. ANSM has six primary water treatment plants and eight primary wastewater treatment plants with several more under construction. Water is distributed by a pipeline network of approximately 1,679 km, complemented by a wastewater collection network of 1,373 km and 17 wastewater pumping stations. At the end of the year 2001, ANSM’s water supply coverage was 99.6%, wastewater collection was 93.6%, and wastewater treatment was 5.7%. Almost 100% of ANSM’s customers have installed and functioning water meters. The company has a total capital investment plan amounting to $95.6 million in the years between 2002-2007, of which the large majority will be dedicated to the construction of new wastewater treatment plants. One of the first plants to be completed was for the town of Curico in December 2001, with an additional 11 smaller plants to be commissioned by the year 2004, which will result in total wastewater treatment rate in the concession area of about 87%. The company expects to achieve full wastewater treatment coverage in its concession area by the year 2006. The capital investments to be undertaken by ANSM over the 2002-2007 period will provide important environmental and health benefits and improvements in the living standards of the inhabitants in the concession area, of which a significant proportion is poor. IFC''s financial assistance to ANSM demonstrates continued visible support for the water sector in countries like Chile, where governments have made substantial regulatory improvements and other efforts to incorporate the private participation in the sector, but which are nevertheless vulnerable to recent emerging market investor concerns. IFC''s support will also enable ANSM to access limited recourse project financing of appropriate maturities otherwise unavailable to ANSM at this time, thus helping to ensure its sustainability by both limiting its overall costs and keeping tariffs at a reasonable level for consumers. The project fits well with the World Bank Group strategy for Chile, which identifies infrastructure as one of the priority areas to be supported by IFC.