Summary of the Request

The Request alleges a series of environmental and social harms related to the Project that would be affecting the quality of life of the Requesters. Among these harms are:

- Shortage of drinking and irrigation water that would directly affect the inhabitants of the city of Santiago and the surrounding Metropolitan Region.

- Acceleration of the desertification process of the area that would cause damages to:

- Biodiversity and natural resources, putting at risk the environmental services offered by the Cajón del Maipo;

- Protected areas of cultural interest for their archaeological and paleontological contribution; and

- Economic, agricultural and tourist activities that support the Region.

- Health effects from air and water pollution in the river basin.

Moreover, the Request mentions families’ resettlement on areas close to the Project and argues that this process would not have been carried out following the parameters established by the Bank.

Likewise, the Request also alleges lack of clear information about the Project impacts and the lack of citizen inclusion.

Recent actions

On November 18, 2022, MICI distributed the monitoring and closure report to the Board. Consequently,  MICI proceeds to close it.

Past actions

On January 30, 2017 MICI granted the Requesters a maximum term of 10 business days to submit additional information required for processing the Request.

The Request was registered on February 15th, 2017, and notifications were sent to Requesters and Bank Management.

On April 21, 2017, the Board of Executive Directors approved the request sent by the MICI Director to extend the deadline for the determination of eligibility of the Request by 10 business days. The objective of this extension request was to allow for a detailed analysis of all the information collected during the mission to the Project site, which took place during the week of April 10th. The new deadline for the emission of the Determination of Eligibility Memorandum was May 1, 2017.

On May 1st, 2017, MICI determined that the Request was eligible as it complied with the criteria set forth by the Mechanism’s Policy.

This determination of eligibility and the initiation of the MICI process do not halt the Project or its disbursements. Likewise, is not an assessment of the merits of the Request or of the issues presented in it; nor does it represent an approval to conduct an investigation to determine compliance or non-compliance by the Bank with respect to its Relevant Operational Policies.

In accordance with the Requesters' wish to use the Compliance Review Phase, the Request was forwarded to that Phase, starting the deadline for MICI to prepare a draft of Recommendation and Terms of Reference for a Compliance Review.

Due to the multiple topics presented in the Request, MICI required an extended period of time to analyze the documentation and prepare the Draft Recommendation for a Compliance Review. The Board of Executive Directors granted the extension; the new due date to circulate the draft to the Parties was July 28.

On July 28th, 2017, the MICI Director requested a 6 business-day extension from Board of Executive Directors to submit the Draft Recommendation for a Compliance Review for comments from the Parties. MICI requested this extension upon receiving public information that may have an impact on the content of the document. The new deadline for circulating the draft among the Parties was August 7, 2017.

On August 7, 2017, MICI requested an extension from the Board of Executive Directors to submit the Draft Recommendation for a Compliance Review for comments from the Parties. MICI requested this extension based on recent public information, which from MICI's perspective, may have an impact on the recommendation for a compliance review.

On November 20, 2017, MICI sent to the Requesters and Management a draft of the Recommendation for a Compliance Review and its Terms of Reference (TOR) for their comments. The Parties had 15 business days to submit comments to this document, the due date was December 13, 2017.

On December 13 and 19, 2017, the MICI received comments from Management and the Requesters, respectively.

On February 26, 2018, the Board of Executive Directors interrupted the approval of the Recommendation in order to consider the document in Committee session, under Short Procedure.

On May 30th of 2018, the Bank’s Board approved the Recommendation and Terms of Reference to carry out a Compliance Review. It is anticipated that the investigation will last nine months from the instance that the panel, consisting of the Coordinator of this phase and two experts, is defined.

On June 26, 2019, at the request of MICI, the Board of Executive Directors approved an extension to the investigation stage. The new issue date for the Draft Compliance Review Report of this case was October 15, 2019.

On October 11, 2019, the Board of Executive Directors approved, at MICI’s request, an internal timeline adjustment to send the Preliminary Compliance Review Report for comments. 

On December 6, 2019, the Preliminary Compliance Review Report was distributed to the Bank's Management for its review and comments.

On January 21, 2020, MICI received the comments from the Bank's Management.

On April 21, 2020, MICI finalized the Compliance Review Report of the "Alto Maipo Hydroelectric Power Project". The Report concludes that the Bank has breached certain requirements of the Operational Policies OP-703 (Directives B.5, B.6 and B.7) and OP-761 regarding, among other aspects:

.  identification of impacts to the tourist and recreational uses of the rivers intervened by reducing flows and determination of mitigation measures in consultation with those affected;

.  evaluation of impacts on communities due to a significant increase in the number of workers in the area, including evaluation of differentiated impacts on women and girls;

.  specific impacts to economic activities and way of life of the community during the construction of the project, in particular to the activities of the “arrieros” and impacts from vehicle traffic in the area during construction;

.  evaluation of impacts and adaptation of mitigation measures with respect to the community of El Alfalfal, by noise generation, air pollution and social division in the community;

.  MICI also found certain breaches regarding the Bank's supervision of environmental and social aspects of the Project. According to the Report’s findings, MICI included 7 recommendations for consideration by the Executive Board.

On June 12, 2020, the Executive Board endorsed the findings contained in the Compliance Review Report and accepted the seven recommendations made by MICI. For its implementation, the Executive Board has instructed the Administration to prepare an Action Plan in consultation with MICI and present it to the consideration of the PEC Committee within a maximum period of 30 days.

On June 15, 2020, MICI published the Compliance Review Report and the Final Decision of the Executive Board. These documents are available in the timeline section below.

The Board of Directors approved Management's Action Plan to address MICI's recommendations included in its Compliance Review Report. Since MICI will be responsible for monitoring the Action Plan, it will then proceed to develop a Monitoring Plan in consultation with relevant stakeholders.

In July 2021, MICI finalized the Monitoring Plan and informed the Board of Directors. In addition, it notified the Parties and published the document in this Public Registry.