Fondo de Agua Santiago-Maipo — Corporate-Public Water Fund for Santiago's Andean Watersheds (Chile)

Fondo de Agua Santiago-Maipo (FDA-SM) is a nonprofit public-private corporation founded by 26 organisations — including the Santiago Metropolitan Regional Government, water utility Aguas Andinas, mining company Anglo American, Nestlé, the rural municipalities association AMUR, the National Agricultural Society and The Nature Conservancy — to protect the Maipo river basin, the source of about 80% of drinking water for greater Santiago's roughly 7 million residents. Partners formally committed to the fund at the end of 2019, following a design phase led by TNC as part of the Latin American Water Funds Alliance model; the corporation's Strategic Plan 2021-2025 was published in January 2021. Governance rests with a nine-member board (three seats for the regional government, plus Aguas Andinas, Anglo American, TNC, AMUR and SNA) supported by a nine-member advisory council.

The basin faces acute stress: precipitation has fallen roughly 30% over the past two decades, the Metropolitan Region's aquifer is dropping about a metre a year with groundwater rights over-allocated by 35% relative to recharge, and modelling cited by the fund projects a 40% decline in the basin's water balance by 2070. Less than 5% of the watershed was under formal protection when the fund launched. In March 2025, FDA-SM, Asociación Parque Cordillera and FSC Chile signed an alliance targeting ecological restoration across 27,000 hectares in seven communes (20,000 ha in San José de Maipo alone) to improve infiltration and recharge; an earlier pilot with Aguas Andinas built about 1,800 metres of infiltration trenches that captured roughly 1,400 m³ of rainwater in 2024. Separate field projects with TNC, Coca-Cola Chile and Chile's forestry service CONAF at the Río Clarillo reserve (40 ha) and El Morado wetland (28 ha, 80% complete) reported recovering about 30,000 m³ of water per year, and an 11-farm irrigation-efficiency project reported saving 1.7 million m³ over three years.

No public source discloses the fund's total capitalisation or corporate contribution amounts, and the 27,000-hectare restoration figure is an agreement target rather than hectares already restored — only the smaller Río Clarillo and El Morado pilots (under 70 ha combined) have documented, near-complete implementation. Sources also give inconsistent founding dates (informal 2019 commitment vs. formal incorporation reported for November 2020), and coordination is complicated by more than 40 Chilean public agencies holding some jurisdiction over water.

Read the full analysis: https://www.bnamericas.com/en/news/public-private-water-funds-set-to-expand-in-chile