In October 2017, Water. Desalination + reuse (Faversham House), citing the Chilean newspaper Diario Financiero, reported that GS Inima of Spain, together with Claro Vicuna Valenzuela of Chile, had secured the contract to engineer and build a seawater desalination plant in Atacama, beating eight rival bids. State utility Econssa's contract was said to be worth about 73 million dollars. Following two years of construction, the reverse osmosis plant was to start in early 2020, delivering up to 104,000 m³/day to 70 per cent of Atacama's residents.
The report showed a Chilean state utility planning to base much of a whole region's drinking water supply on seawater desalination, awarded in competition among nine bidders.