‘Water Forever for Abancay and Communities’ aims to benefit more than 65,000 users of drinking water in the urban communities of Abancay, Peru.
August 21, 2020. Bogotá, Colombia. With the signing of a tripartite agreement, the first project is officially launched in the EUROCLIMA+ sector Agua Water Management with an Urban Resilience Perspective. It is called Water Forever for Abancay and Communities: Developing urban resilience strategies to confront climate change in the Mariño micro-basin, which is beginning its implementation phase in Peru.
This is the first of seven projects in Latin America selected by the Urban Water sector to begin their implementation. These projects seek to strengthen the resilience of urban areas through better water management, improve access to drinking water for the most vulnerable populations, and guarantee the quality of water resources in order to reduce negative impacts on health and the environment and increase their availability.
In the Urban Water sector, the European Union, through the EUROCLIMA+ programme, supports actions that are already being implemented, strengthening them and seeking to make them scalable. "EUROCLIMA+ is one of the European Union's most important initiatives in the region", said Diego Mellado, European Union Ambassador in Peru, "we have been working for more than ten years on environmental governance and the fight against climate change ". Thus, the European Union is contributing its commitment, experience, and knowledge for working in the region, with the aim of ensuring the quality of water resources.
This objective becomes even more relevant in the current situation because of Covid-19: "We are in times of pandemic, of necessary economic recovery, and this economic recovery has to be green, ecological; in Europe we are doing this through the Green Pact", says Ambassador Mellado. In this way, we will work hand in hand with the Implementing Agencies to create strategies for resilience, but also sustainable and environmentally conscious strategies.
A project that connects the countryside with the city
The Project Water Forever for Abancay and Communities, benefits more than 68,000 users of water services in the city of Abancay and five rural farming communities in the vicinity of the Mariño micro-basin that supplies this water resource. Its objective is to contribute to ensuring the future availability, equitable access and responsible use of water: "Through the project, and by means of collaborative and multilevel actions, we will consolidate a scheme for the articulation of supply, demand and governance of water resources, so that Andean cities like Abancay can increase their water security in the future", states Luis Albán, Regional Coordinator of Policy Advocacy and Financial Mechanisms of the PBA - HELVETAS Peru.
The differentiating factor of the project is that this is an initiative designed specifically to involve the community of Abancay in the process, says Ivan Lucich, president of SUNASS: "It combines ecosystem management with the management of water supply and collection systems, involving the user-consumer of sanitation services, which I think is the most important thing in terms of innovation: this link between city and countryside is not alien to the user," he says.
The inhabitants will be a fundamental part of this project, through activities such as the Water Route, a journey along a trail that connects the city of Abancay with the Rontoccocha lagoon, in the highest part of the Mariño micro-basin, a way of involving the citizens in the process and demonstrating the route taken by the drinking water they consume.
Thus, the hope is to create resilient and replicable strategies for water management, to ensure equitable and sustainable use, to optimise the quality of water resources, to promote spaces for governance, and to transfer this knowledge to other communities. "There is a lot of expectation in the country to be able to replicate this process in other spaces," concludes Iván Lucich.
It is also expected that the agreement will soon be signed so that projects in the Urban Water sector in Colombia and Costa Rica can begin their implementation phase.
Below we share the video of the signing event for the project:
EUROCLIMA+ sector Water management with an urban resilience perspective
Through this sector of the EUROCLIMA+ programme implemented by the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID) and the French Development Agency (AFD), a total of seven projects will be implemented. For more information on each project visit: https://www.euroclima.org/agua
About EUROCLIMA+
EUROCLIMA+ is a programme financed by the European Union to promote environmentally sustainable and climate-resilient development in 18 Latin American countries, particularly for the benefit of the most vulnerable populations. The Programme is implemented under the synergistic work of seven agencies: the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID), the French Development Agency (AFD), Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), Expertise France (EF), International and Ibero-American Foundation for Administration and Public Policy (FIIAPP), the German Society for International Cooperation (GIZ), and UN Environment.
Contacts
For more information about EUROCLIMA+, contact Alexandra Cortés: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
For information about the EUROCLIMA+ Urban Water sector, write to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Web: www.euroclimaplus.org