Veolia will manage the first municipal and industrial desalination plant of Chile in Valparaíso

Veolia was awarded the Operation and Maintenance (O&M) contract for the Aguas Pacífico multipurpose desalination plant in Valparaíso, the first in Chile (1,000 L/s), ahead of five leading national and international companies that were part of the tender. Veolia, leader in ecological transformation with more than 170 years of global experience and over 50 years of expertise in the operation and maintenance of desalination plants. As the world leader in desalination, Veolia has designed and built 18% of the global installed desalination capacity using its technologies, reaffirming its position as a benchmark in the sustainable management of water resources worldwide.

Stages and scope of the O&M contract

The contract begins with a support phase for the commissioning of the plant and the aqueduct, or start-up phase. Once the operational condition is reached—producing 1,000 l/s of desalinated water and transporting it to the final customers in the interior of the Valparaíso Region and the Metropolitan Region—the Operation and Maintenance phase begins for both the desalination plant and the aqueduct and its storage works (tanks). Both phases have a duration of up to 4 years, after which contract extension clauses may apply, potentially extending the contract until 2040.

The operation of the Aguas Pacífico Desalination Plant considers 100% use of renewable energies, 60% local labor, delivery of water to Rural Sanitary Services (formerly APR) in Limache and Olmué affected by the drought, and the use of the most advanced technologies in marine intake and outfall systems to protect the ocean.

ABOUT AGUAS PACIFÍCO

Aguas Pacífico is a company under the international investment fund Patria Investments, founded in 2016 with the goal of carrying out the first desalination project in central Chile to supply potable water to industrial clients and for human consumption in the Valparaíso and Metropolitan Regions. The project, which is currently under construction, includes the operation of a seawater desalination plant with a capacity of 1,000 l/s in the commune of Puchuncaví and a 105-kilometer-long aqueduct that reaches Quilapilún in the commune of Colina in the Metropolitan Region. The investment of US$1.2 billion secured financing with green credit certification and a Very Good sustainability rating (Moody’s).

ABOUT VEOLIA

Veolia group aims to become the benchmark company for ecological transformation. Present on five continents with 215,000 employees, the Group designs and deploys useful, practical solutions for the management of water, waste and energy that are contributing to a radical turnaround of the current situation. Through its three complementary activities, Veolia helps to develop access to resources, to preserve available resources and to renew them. In 2024, the Veolia group provided 111 million inhabitants with drinking water and 98 million with sanitation, produced 42 million megawatt hours of energy and treated 65 million tonnes of waste. Veolia Environnement (Paris Euronext: VIE) achieved consolidated revenue of 44.7 billion euros in 2024.