The (not-so-free) Chilean water model. The case of the Antofagasta Region, Atacama Desert, Chile

Both supporters and critics of the Chilean water model have described it as a textbook example of deregulation and the free-market model for water management. In this article, we challenge this characterization and argue that the model has relied on long-term and highly centralized State decisions that have installed and reproduced historical power asymmetries. Based on archival research and historical records of water rights assignments and water-related legal instruments, we develop a comprehensive historical analysis of how water rights have been distributed over the last 100 years in one of the country's most paradigmatic cases: the Antofagasta Region. Starting seven decades before the military regime imposed the 1981 Water Code, our analysis reveals that water in this geographical area has historically been distributed through distinct State-driven strategies rather than market instruments, favoring mining companies. We conclude that the Chilean water model, rather than being a market-driven approach to water management, actually relies on strong regulations, and that the Water Code merely crystallizes centralized historical decisions regarding water distribution that support an extractivist development model.