On September 15, 2021, Supreme Decree No. 131 of July 8, 2021, of the Ministry of Public Works was published in the Official Gazette, which amends Supreme Decree No. 50 of January 13, 2015, of the same ministry, which approves the regulation referred to in Article 295, paragraph 2°, of the Water Code, establishing the technical conditions to be met in the design, construction and operation of the hydraulic works identified in Article 294 of the aforementioned legal text (hereinafter the “Regulation”).

Among the most important modification is the inclusion of the term “Commissioning” (defined in the new letter r) of the Regulation), which is incorporated for those projects that, in practice, require to be operated with water in order to verify their safety, prior to their reception.

Likewise, they include deadlines and the way in which this process must be carried out, which provides greater certainty when requesting the approval of the definitive project.

Notwithstanding the above, all those project owners who have Project Approval and construction authorization prior to these modifications and who do not have reception of works and operation authorization, when submitting to the corresponding reception procedure, may opt to apply the rules of the old Regulation or the new one.

For those owners of projects without Works Reception, whose works have been executed and their commissioning is in progress or exceeded, before the entry into force of these modifications, the new regulations will be applicable.

The provisions of the new second paragraph of Article 55 of the Regulation shall not be applicable to them.

Should you require additional information on this matter, please contact: Martin Esser, messer@jdf.cl.