Chile: the balanced view : a recopilation of articles about the Allende years and after

Works and the new housing developments of the Ministry of Housing. No details are available eoneerning investments in these seetors for tbe next few years, although substan- tial investments are predieted in the budget for 1974. . To promote the. housing plan, it is neeessary to request from the Social Development Fund of the World Bank a loan-that wi 11 permit the financing of sanitation worksfor housesto be built during 1974-75. The amount ofthe loan will be approximately$25 million. A loan of this size would finanee almost the entire program for eompleting sanítary faeílities for 47,000 homes for the people, making progress on the eonstruetion of anotber 15,000 homes, and solieiting bíds and starting work on an additional 41,000 homes, and il would permit implementatíon of the program without interruption. Chile provides drinking waterfor 68 pereent of its urban population and readyaeeess to water for another 26 pereent (94 pereent eoverage). Sewers are provided for 38 pereent of the populatíon. . b) Rural sanitation We believe that it should bepossible to start a program of rural sanitation (drinking water and waste disposal) with a eredít from the World Bank similarto the one granted some years ago, whieh, however, was insuffieient to deal with the seope of the problem at that time. In fac1, only 9 percent of the rural population has dírect or easy access to drinking water. On the other hand, 28 percent of the rural population has an adequate system for disposal of human wastes. e) Communieations A program on communications prepared by the National Telecommunications Corpo– ration is not available. A very rough estímate would place the minimum annual investments over the next few years at $ 20-25million to improve urban and long...distance communica– tions services required by the country. This chapter does not deal with the infrastructures related to specific sectors such as agriculture (irrigation), education, and health. They will be mentioned in the studies of those sectors. 229