Aguas Andinas advances Santiago water project

On Thursday, 10 September 2026, Aguas Andinas inspected progress on the Santiago Poniente project alongside Chile's Ministry of Public Works (MOP) and the water regulator SISS. The initiative features 12 deep wells in Estación Central designed to deliver 1,200 liters per second. The project will directly benefit over 400,000 residents in Cerro Navia, Estación Central, Quinta Normal, Lo Prado, and Pudahuel during extreme droughts.

The first phase involves four boreholes about 280 meters deep each. Construction is now moving forward on a 5,000-cubic-meter regulation tank and a lift station to integrate groundwater into the supply network. The company expects this first group of wells to start operating in the final quarter of 2027 with a capacity of 400 liters per second.

The project is part of Biociudad, a plan deployed since 2023 with a 2035 roadmap to raise underground supply from 25% to nearly 40% of the company's total mix through roughly 36 wells across the city. Aguas Andinas General Manager José Sáez stated that the company supplies more than 7 million people and must adapt to lower water availability in the Maipo river basin.

Aguas Andinas is also developing Retorno Maipo to reuse treated wastewater, alongside potential links to the El Yeso reservoir to guard against river turbidity events. The utility noted that Retorno Maipo would increase customer bills by 2%, compared to an estimated 25% to 30% impact under a desalination alternative. While Pirque tanks currently offer 37 hours of backup autonomy, Sáez noted the company aims to expand that safety buffer to multiple weeks.