Copiapo Desalination Plant, Chile

ACCIONA Agua and ACCIONA Infrastructure are running a project for a mining company in Chile which consists of constructing a desalination plant and slurry pipeline, as well as the future operation of the plant. This project is the first ACCIONA project subjected to all the phases of the SIA methodology.

The project is located in the Copiapó Valley, in the Atacama Region of Chile. In the area directly affected by the project is the community of Caldera, natural port for the capital of the region, Copiapó, 75 kilometres away, with almost 14,000 inhabitants.

Implementing the methodology meant running a consultation involving the local communities through 12 face-to-face interviews and 244 telephone interviews, from which conclusions were extracted about the local socioeconomic features of use in optimizing the impact of the project.

The group identified through this assessment as being the most affected was small-scale fishermen and shellfish divers, since it has a direct impact on their traditional way of life.

• Support education for children and young people.
• Help for the emergency services.
• Help to improve the leisure infrastructure in the municipal area.
• Information about the desalination plant.
• Encouraging entrepreneurial initiatives related to craft activities.
• Specific action with the group of shellfish divers.