More than 30 people from organizations in Colombia, Costa Rica, Uruguay, Guatemala, El Salvador, and Peru, who are part of five of the six Urban Water projects, participated in this international event organized by the Water for Abancay project.

June 2023. Abancay, Peru. Various actors and professionals linked to water management, sanitation and water security in Latin America met for three days in Abancay (Peru) in an event organized by the 'Water for Abancay and Communities' project of the EUROCLIMA Urban Water sector of the European Union, which is implemented by the French Development Agency (AFD) and

the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID), and executed by SUNASS, Helvetas Peru, EMUSAP Abancay and CEDES Apurimac.

More than 30 people from organizations in Colombia, Costa Rica, Uruguay, Guatemala, El Salvador, and Peru, who are part of five of the six Agua Urbana projects, participated in this international event, which was entitled: Natural infrastructure and drinking water management in urban areas. Implications for water security in cities. The meeting, which took place from June 14 to 16, sought to capitalize on the knowledge generated from projects on investments in natural infrastructure as a support point for promoting water security in Latin American and Caribbean cities.

The regulatory framework for investments in natural infrastructure, which uses natural systems and elements that are part of the territory and, thanks to the function they perform, help restore the ecosystem while producing services or benefits like those achieved with the use of grey infrastructure, was also presented.

Likewise, their relationship with the sanitation sector in several countries of Latin America and the Caribbean was discussed and specific cases of implementation of initiatives to articulate natural infrastructure and sanitation services were presented. In addition, good practices and lessons learned from the projects financed by the EUROCLIMA Urban Water sector in Costa Rica, Colombia, Uruguay, and El Salvador were exchanged and shared, analysing the impacts of investments in natural infrastructure and their implications for cities’ water security and resilience.

"We are very grateful for this opportunity to share with you the experience of the Water for Abancay project and the communities. I have always liked this coordinated way working model on water supply, demand, and governance; besides taking it to a higher level of public policy development," said Kaspar Schmidt, Director of Helvetas Peru.

Marie Morel, representing AFD, mentioned that: "Something very important for the EUROCLIMA program is knowledge management. This is one of the key components of the Program and of cooperation in general: to be able to exchange learned lessons and methodologies developed in the field, and the challenges that each one can face to develop successful projects at the international level".

"Water conservation is a concern for local and regional authorities. From our territory we call to join efforts to promote actions for its conservation," said Elías Araníbar, representing the Regional Government of Apurímac. He also pointed out that the regional government joins the actions carried out by the project.

The event had three thematic blocks on natural infrastructure and sanitation services, the integral approach to promote water security in cities, and information management. In addition, the Integral Water Route - or Yakuq Ñan - was held to learn about the progress and approaches worked on by the project on site.

Luis Albán, Coordinator of Water for Abancay and Communities, pointed out some of the project's achievements in terms of drinking water demand, regulation, and water insecurity:

1. Improvement of water supply, thanks to the participation, involvement and promotion of the actions of the Ecosystem Services Retribution Hydric Mechanism MERESE implemented by EPS EMUSAP Abancay.

2. Capacities are being strengthened in EPS Emusap Abancay to increase the optimization of drinking water demand in the city, in the technical cadastre, technical studies and design of the water loss reduction plan.

3. At the governance level, the Mariño Microbasin Management platform has been strengthened to address the problem of water security in Abancay, and with the 5 rural communities linked to the Hydric MERESE, their Life Plans were updated to 2030 incorporating the water resources management approach

The challenges are still many, but this model allows to exemplify how participatory actions, involving authorities, communities, and civil society, allow to achieve local improvements and better management of the territory.

Water for Abancay and Communities aims to promote urban resilience strategies to climate change, ensuring the availability, responsible and equitable use of water for the city of Abancay and the rural communities of the Mariño micro-basin, thanks to a sustainable investment mechanism in natural infrastructure, an optimized and resilient demand, a multi-stakeholder governance, and the generation/capitalization of new knowledge and lessons learned that can be replicated in other regions of the country and the Andean Region. It is supported by EUROCLIMA+, through the French Agency AFD, with SUNASS as national leader, and Helvetas Peru as executing agency. At the local level, Water for Abancay is implemented in collaboration with EPS EMUSAP Abancay and the NGO CEDES Apurímac.