The projects aim to ensure the protection and regeneration of urban water sources and improve the resilience of potable water services to climate change.
Bogotá, Colombia, July 29, 2019. The component “Water management with an urban resilience perspective” of EUROCLIMA+, a programme funded by the European Union, officially published today the seven projects that have been selected following a call for proposals begun in June 2018.
The projects selected are meant to ensure the protection and regeneration of water sources that supply urban areas (mountain ranges, aquifers, and others) and improve the resilience of urban potable water services against the impacts of climate change, focusing on vulnerable populations. In addition, each project will have actions to strengthen technical and institutional capacities in order to equip the entities responsible for water resources and water service provision to meet the challenges related to water availability in sufficient quality and quantity.
The general objective is to efficiently incorporate in public policies specific concepts related to integrated water resource management and implement pilot projects that would serve as inspiration to other cities in Latin America.
The Water Management component projects will only be implemented at the national level:
- Two projects will focus on strengthening water resource management in the country's capitals: Montevideo in Uruguay and San Salvador in El Salvador.
- Three projects will focus on medium-sized cities and their nearby settlements, specifically Abancay in Peru, Pasto in Colombia and San Pedro Sacatepequez in Guatemala.
- Two projects will focus on strengthening community operators in Costa Rica and designing a public policy in Ecuador.
The technical evaluation of the projects formulated was carried out by a joint evaluation committee of the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID) and the French Development Agency (AFD) with the participation of the European Commission as an observer.
The country and title of each project selected are given below:
Peru: Water for Abancay and Communities forever; developing strategies for urban resilience to climate change in the Mariño, Abancay micro-basin in Apurímac.
Colombia: Strengthening the territorial approach and water governance in Andean mountain cities, as a strategy for resilience against climate change: the case of the Atríz Valley Water Region.
Costa Rica: Strengthening the Associations of Administrators of Aqueduct and Sanitary Sewer Systems (ASADAS) of the Greater Metropolitan Area and peripheral cities to improve their management and resilience to climate change.
Ecuador: Adaptation to climate change for the human right to water and sanitation: Policies and action from the local to the national.
Uruguay: Incorporation of technology and knowledge development for integrated water resource management, under the framework for variability and climate change of the Santa Lucia River Basin, a source of potable water for the Montevideo Metropolitan Area.
Guatemala: Urban waters of the Marquense valley.
El Salvador: Have an influence on better management of the hydrological cycle with a focus on groundwater for Adaptation to climate change in the San Salvador Metropolitan Area.
About the Water Management component
The French Development Agency (AFD), as leader of the sector, and the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID), are the agencies delegated by the European Commission to oversee the sector for Water Management with an urban resilience perspective. Under this framework, on June 15, 2018, the call for the submission of expressions of interest with preformulated projects was published, whose term ended on September 10, 2018.
The committees responsible for the evaluation and prequalification of project proposals received a total of 129 “no objection” requests from institutions interested in participating in the call for projects. After the process to evaluate and prequalify these requests (made by the evaluation committees formed in each country for this purpose), a total of 46 project proposals were considered “eligible” and these were passed on to the implementing agencies for evaluation.
After a detailed evaluation process, on January 15, 2019, 24 proposals were chosen for the second selection phase. The leading institutions for the pre-selected pre-formulation sheets were invited to prepare a complete project formulation document. Finally, on July 22, the 7 projects selected were officially announced.
See the project selection resolution.
About EUROCLIMA+
EUROCLIMA+ is a programme funded by the European Union to promote environmentally sustainable and climate-resilient development in 18 Latin American countries, in particular to benefit the most vulnerable populations. The Programme is implemented under the synergistic work of seven agencies: Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID), 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 Policies (FIIAPP), German Society for International Cooperation (GIZ), and UN Environment.
Press contacts
For information about EUROCLIMA+, contact Alexandra Cortés:
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For information about the Water Management component with an urban resilience perspective, contact Vincent Merme at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.