At a Glance
- Client: Ministry of Public Works (MOP), Chile
- Funding Partner: Inter-American Development Bank (IDB)
- Region: Latin America and the Caribbean
- Period: 2025–Present
- Region: July 2021 – March 2022
- Category: Investment Planning, Implementation & Governance
- Role: Strategic Advisory, Financing Strategy, PPP Advisory, Innovation and Governance Design
- Focus Areas: Water Security, Climate Adaptation, Infrastructure Planning, Innovation Ecosystems, Public–Private Partnerships
- Strategic Objective:Design the implementation roadmap for Chile’s National Water Infrastructure Investment Plan 2020–2050
- Methodology: Systems Thinking, Adaptive Planning, Innovation Ecosystem Design, Strategic Procurement, Blended Finance
- Key Challenge: Transforming a long-term national water vision into an adaptive, investable, and implementable portfolio of infrastructure solutions
- Core Themes: Innovation, Governance, Financing, Public–Private Collaboration, Climate Resilience
- Key Output: National implementation and governance roadmap for the Chile Water Infrastructure Plan 2020–2050
- Strategic Outcome: Recommendations for adaptive infrastructure planning, innovation uptake, blended finance, private-sector participation, and institutional coordination
- Unique Contribution: Designed mechanisms to support long-term investment planning and infrastructure delivery under deep uncertainty while accelerating innovation and collaboration across public, private, and academic actors
The Challenge
Chile faces some of the world’s most diverse and complex water management challenges, ranging from extreme aridity in the north to highly water-abundant regions in the south. Climate change, growing water demand, technological disruption, and increasing uncertainty are placing new pressures on traditional infrastructure planning approaches.
In response, the Chilean Government developed the National Water Infrastructure Investment Plan 2020–2050. However, delivering long-term water security required more than identifying infrastructure projects. It required creating the institutional, financial, and innovation mechanisms needed to continuously adapt infrastructure systems as conditions evolve.
Our Contribution
Altamira supported the Ministry of Public Works and the Inter-American Development Bank in developing an implementation and governance roadmap for the Plan.
The work focused on a fundamental question:
How can a national water infrastructure strategy remain adaptive, innovative, and investable over the next three decades under conditions of deep uncertainty?
The assignment included the design of:
- Public-private-academic collaboration mechanisms
- Innovation governance structures
- Strategic procurement approaches
- Blended finance and private-sector participation strategies
- Mechanisms for scaling emerging technologies
- Governance arrangements for adaptive water infrastructure planning
- Institutional models to support continuous learning and decision-making across river basins and regions
Key Areas of Work
1. Adaptive Infrastructure Planning
Developed recommendations to strengthen long-term investment planning under climate uncertainty through improved modelling, scenario analysis, and adaptive decision-making processes.
2. Innovation Ecosystem Design
Designed mechanisms to connect government agencies, universities, innovators, investors, and infrastructure operators to accelerate the identification, testing, and scaling of new water technologies and management approaches.
3. Blended Finance and Private Sector Participation
Developed strategies to expand the role of private capital and expertise beyond traditional concession models, enabling greater participation in innovation development, infrastructure delivery, and long-term water resilience investments.
4. Governance and Institutional Coordination
Proposed governance arrangements to strengthen coordination among national, regional, basin-level, public, and private actors involved in water infrastructure planning and implementation.
Strategic Outcomes
The project generated a roadmap centred around six strategic pillars:
- Integrated portfolio-based infrastructure planning
- Enhanced hydro-economic planning and modelling capabilities
- National water innovation networks
- Mechanisms for scaling innovative solutions
- Public-private collaboration and blended finance models
- Basin-level governance and coordination structures
These recommendations were designed to help Chile move from static infrastructure planning toward a continuously evolving system capable of responding to climate, technological, economic, and social change.
