Editor's Note: This article is part of an ongoing RANE series on the geopolitical impacts of water stress. The first installment of this series provided a broad overview of how the unequal distribution of freshwater shapes geopolitical patterns. Other installments have examined the impacts of water stress on the global economy , Europe , China , the Sahel region of sub-Saharan Africa , Israel and Central Asia . Rising water stress in Chile is increasing threats to the country's critical agriculture and mining sectors, while also stoking long-standing social tensions, but further successes in constructing desalination plants would bode well for the country's ability to stave off the most severe impacts of water insecurity. Over the last fifteen years, water scarcity in Chile has escalated dramatically, with a prolonged dry period known as a "megadrought" starting in 2010 and persisting as of 2024.