The Rural Water Supply Program (PAAR) began in 2003 as an inter - institutional initiative with the purpose to design and build new water supply systems or to upgrade existing systems.

PAAR have worked in 29 of the 42 municipalities in Valle del Cauca focusing on settlements with a population under 2500 people. In all the settlements analyzed, agricultural activities were identified that are important for the livelihoods of their inhabitants.

The “reported” or intended use of water in the designs is domestic use, based on the Drinking Water and Sanitation Regulation, meaning 150 lpcd. However this allocation has been adjusted in practice to allow up to 170 lpcd, which is enough to develop small scale productive activities based on water.

The PAAR Program uses mainly small streams as sources for gravity fed water supply systems and in some cases, systems need to use more than one stream in order to satisfy the demand. When the systems are planned measures are taken to promote financial sustainability and for this reason, tariffs which include a fixed charge and a (metered) consumption charge are put in place. Meters are mandatory for the water supply systems built by PAAR.