Main activities and field trips carried out since the projects selected for the Water Management component with an urban resilience perspective were notified.

November 28, 2019. The projects for the Water Management component of the EUROCLIMA+ programme, implemented by the French Development Agency (AFD) and the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID), were officially selected in July 2019. They are intervening at both local and national levels in 7 countries of the region, to promote actions and pilot projects for integrated water resources management in a pragmatic and participatory way in order to improve the ecosystem and socio-economic conditions of watersheds that supply cities as well as the quality of aqueduct services through innovative financial mechanisms and territorial governance schemes.

The joint launch of all the projects of this component will take place at the beginning of 2020. The exact place and date are yet to be defined. The participation of the implementing partners with technical, administrative and communication officers for each project, the national focal points and the implementing agencies of EUROCLIMA+ together with the European Union Delegations of the interested countries is envisaged.

Project contracting processes

Following the official notification of the results of the Urban Water call for proposals, the implementing agencies entered a technical and budgetary review phase for each project in order to improve the logical articulation of the interventions and thus optimise the use of the funds available. In this way, each agency led this revision process of the initial proposals by organising several meetings in the intervention zones of the projects or through remote meetings. The objectives of this phase are to align the logical frameworks of the projects with the logical framework of the component and thus facilitate effective follow-up on the Euclides monitoring platform developed by EUROCLIMA+, in order to adjust the budgets available with the budgets requested, to improve the agencies' understanding of the planned interventions, and to provide technical assistance to project leaders during this phase.

The plan is to sign grant agreements/resolutions at the beginning of 2020 with the aim of starting activities as soon as possible.                

Focus on two projects

• Pasto, Colombia: Creation of a new territorial water management entity in the Atriz valley

The municipalities of Pasto and Tangua in the Department of Nariño in south-eastern Colombia, under the leadership of EmpoPasto, the water operator of Pasto, aspire to create a new institution for territorial water management at the supra-municipal but sub-regional level, according to the application of three criteria for the delimitation of the intervention zone of this governance roundtable: hydrological, ecosystemic and administrative. Also, this new institution intends to channel the funds collected by several local and regional sources to be able to implement specific of watershed management actions and improve services. The project contemplates the implementation of geotechnical stabilisation pilot projects to reduce erosion in a larger water catchment area of EmpoPasto, the rehabilitation of a conduit using sustainable urban drainage concepts, or the increase of water treatment and supply capacity for the city of Tangua, among others. One achievement of this project before its start is to have been able to bring to the table all the actors involved in the water sector (local and regional authorities, water operators, social and environmental NGOs, user boards, universities).

For the proposal review, AFD teams met with all project partners and made field visits with beneficiary communities on October 10 and 11, 2019.  In addition, AFD and EMPOPASTO organised meetings in Bogota with The Nature Conservancy to learn about and exchange information about ongoing activities at the Colombian level to implement new water funds, as well as with the Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development to explain the project and see how it could be articulated with the existing regulatory framework and ongoing water sector reforms (tariff mechanisms to protect water sources, regionalisation and integration of water operators, etc.). They received full support from the national authorities for the implementation of the project.

• Abancay, Peru: Implementation of the Mechanism for Ecosystem Service Remuneration (MRSE) to improve supply and demand

The National Superintendence of Sanitation Services (SUNASS) together with EMUSAP Abancay (water operator of the city of Abancay), CEDES (Peruvian NGO with experience in the rural communities of the region) and Helvetas (international NGO with presence in Peru for more than 35 years) will implement this integrated water management project in the city of Abancay, capital of the department of Apurímac in southeastern Peru. The project will contribute to ensuring the future availability, and the responsible and equitable use of water for the population of Abancay and the communities of the Mariño micro-basin, through a sustainable mechanism of investment in natural infrastructure, optimised and resilient demand and multi-actor governance.

A first meeting was organised on August 15, 2019 at the SUNASS offices in Lima with the Helvetas team (funding management entity) and AFD agents to introduce each actor and start discussions on the improvement of the initial proposal. As part of the interactions, it was discussed how to implement the payment for environmental services mechanism, and the planned transactions between urban citizens and farming communities. An example of the work already underway between EMUSAP, CEDES and the communities of the Mariño micro-basin was presented, for which two agreements were signed to shape a transaction in which the communities leave their agricultural activities in the catchment area of the operator in exchange for the protection and regeneration of another micro-basin that provides water to these same communities for irrigation and consumption. This meeting allowed several work sessions to achieve a robust articulation of the project. At the same time, the financing agreement has been drafted and is currently being finalised. AFD teams are organising a field trip for the week of December 2, 2019.

EUROCLIMA+ Water Management component with an urban resilience perspective 

Through this component the EUROCLIMA+ programme will implement a total of seven projects. For more information about each project, visit this link: Projects

About EUROCLIMA+

EUROCLIMA+ is a programme funded 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: 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), 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+ Risk Management component, write to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.