continues, experts agree that hydropower, irrigation, and water supply for human consumption may be diminished. Water resources management history Beginning in 1855, the State Civil Code granted licenses to private parties for exclusive use of water. Nearly one hundred years later, Chile adopted the 1951 Water Code that provided a system of water rights administration very similar to that practiced in the Western United States in that the government granted provisional water rights that became protected property rights after being used. In 1967, a new water code was enacted to replace that of 1951 and was part of agrarian law reform. The 1967 Water Code was intended to empower landowners to receive water and attempted to redistribute water as a component of the governments strategy to reform agrarian policy. The 1967 Water Code strengthened Government control of water and enabled redistribution of large estates and the expropriation of land and water rights to be reallocated and without any compensation to the previous holders. Land expropriated prior to 1974 was divided into small farms and the rights to land and water were granted to the current occupants, including approximately 48,000 small farmers. These reforms in part, and a deteriorating economic situation led to the military overthrow of Allende in 1973. The new military government of General Augusto Pinochet began adopting free-market economic policies and then signed a new constitution in 1980. The 1981 Water Code was soon to follow. The Chilean water management model and 1981 Water Code Protected by Chile's 1980 Constitution, the 1981 Water Code established the framework by which the allocation and management of water resources are employed in Chile. Internationally known as the "Chilean Model", the Chilean experience in water resources management is characterized by its use of free-market forces and water markets to reallocate water to high-value use. Although private water rights existed in Chile prior to 1981, the previous water codes restricted the creation and operation of an efficient water market. When the Water Code was being drafted in the late 1970s and early 1980s, the government was concerned with irrigation and agriculture. The framers of the 1981 Water Code sought to achieve the efficiencies of market reallocation of water within agricultural and irrigation markets. As Hernan Buchi, ex-Finance Minister of Chile (1985–1989), stated, "the objective of the governmental action in this field was to create solid water use rights in order to facilitate the