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A typology is proposed regarding the modes of access to water for the rural population in Chile as well as four explanatory dimensions of its heterogeneity. The typology emerges from a systematic review of the literature and an analysis of quantitative data based on rural water organizations' databases. The modes of access are defined by the following five criteria: their socio-technical system, their type of management, their level of spatial action, the source of their financing, and the type of technical assistance they received. The findings dispute the systemic vision of access to water in rural areas and invite us to consider the structural heterogeneity in regulations and public policies to guarantee the human right to water. HIGHLIGHTS There are different modes of access to water in rural Chile.; Access to water is not constituted by a single, functional, and homogeneous system.; Access to rural water via a collective network is not the most common mode of access.; The legal framework, inequalities, urbanization, and climate change contribute to the heterogeneity.; The public policies should integrate this diversity and consider the elements that create it.;

The level of satisfaction of individuals within a community sharing a common pool resource is essential to strengthening collective actions. In the case of irrigation water, which is becoming a critical resource due to its declining availability in many regions worldwide, the satisfaction level in Water User Associations (WUAs) is not guaranteed and also varies across individuals within these organizations. This study analyzed the satisfaction of users in WUAs and identified organization- and user-level characteristics associated with it. Using a sample of 393 users of 20 WUAs from the Mediterranean portion of Chile, we performed confirmatory factor analysis, correlational analyses, and multilevel regressions. A composite indicator of user satisfaction showed significant correlations with the positive evaluation of the WUA staff performance, the effectiveness of monitoring and enforcement, and the confidence that other users do not withdraw more water than they are allocated. We also compared users' satisfaction levels from WUAs facing higher and lower water scarcity problems and found that user satisfaction is significantly higher in the latter case. The results of the multilevel econometric models show that in WUAs under higher water scarcity, user satisfaction is affected by several structural characteristics (water withdrawal mechanism and location along the canal) and users' human and social capital variables (experience, education, and participation in organizations); in contrast, in WUAs with a low level of scarcity, few covariates were significant while unobserved characteristics became more relevant (34 % of total variance explanation). Our study contributes to the existing literature on user satisfaction in community resource management, which could be useful to promote effective and cohesive governance structures as, ultimately, users determine cooperation rates and willingness to participate in WUA actions. • We measure irrigators' satisfaction (IS) from 20 Water User Associations (WUAs). • IS mainly correlates with the perceived performance of different WUA staff members. • Individuals belonging to WUAs with higher water scarcity show lower IS. • Farm, irrigator, and WUA characteristics explain IS in WUAs with higher scarcity. • Unobserved heterogeneity at the WUA level plays a significant role in IS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]