Learning and change
Este informe incluye el seguimiento a las Alianzas de Aprendizaje del Proyecto MUS. Contiene un análisis de los cambios personales e institucionales que se han generado en los miembros con relación a MUS como resultado de las actividades de la Alianza.
En el marco del proyecto MUS el Instituto Cinara de la Universidad del Valle, desarrolló el 13 de Octubre de 2006 el quinto taller de la Alianza de Aprendizaje.
Esta reunión tuvo como objetivo iniciar la construcción de una propuesta para la formulación de guías para el diseño y gestión de sistemas de suministro de agua para la zona rural, bajo el enfoque MUS.
En esta oportunidad se contó con la participación de 33 personas, de diferentes disciplinas e instituciones relacionadas con el suministro de agua para diferentes propósitos, provenientes de los Departamentos de Cauca y Valle del Cauca. Estas personas trabajaron en una sesión de 8 horas alrededor de los temas:
§ Demanda de agua para múltiples usos
§ Oferta de agua a partir de múltiples fuentes
§ Tecnologías sostenibles para múltiples usos a partir de múltiples fuentes
§ Sistemas de gestión sostenibles para sistemas de uso múltiple
En el marco del proyecto MUS el Instituto Cinara de la Universidad del Valle organizó la cuarta reunión de trabajo “Alianza de Aprendizaje” con el fin de intercambiar opiniones sobre los avances obtenidos a lo largo del proyecto.
En la cuarta reunión, se discutió con los participantes la normatividad que se está formulando en Colombia, la Ley de Aguas y el Reglamento Técnico en Agua Potable para la zona rural, con el propósito de analizar la forma en que se aborda el concepto de usos múltiples del agua en estos proyectos normativos y generar sugerencias para mejorar dicha reglamentación. De la misma forma, se presentaron los resultados de la sesión de MUS en el IV Foro Mundial del Agua en México y las experiencias y hallazgos del grupo de trabajo de Cinara con los estudios de caso de La Palma – Tres Puertas y la microcuenca de la Quebrada El Chocho.
A la reunión asistieron 48 personas, representantes del IRC de Holanda, el CIAT, Contraloría Nacional, CVC, Universidad del Valle, el Programa PAAR, Gobernación del Valle y Secretaria de Agricultura, entre otros.
This report (in Spanish) documents the development of a resource center in alliance with local government of Cochabamba to enhance providers' coordination, support and financing for small water committees, especially in dealing with multiple-use water services.
This workshop held on 15 July 2005 had three objectives:
- to further discuss and define how the MUS learning alliance in the Valle del Cauca will operate
- to select case studies for joint documentation and research involving the learning alliance members
- to arrange field visits to these case studies/ pilot projects.
Seven possible case studies were proposed prior to the workshop and are each summarised in this report. Three case studies were selected for further investigation based upon the priorities of the learning alliance members. These were:
- La Palma – Tres Puertas (Restrepo): the project PAAR (a department level rural water supply programme) is re-designing the rural water system in this settlement based upon a demand of 40m3/household/month in order to meet household-level productive as well as domestic needs.
- Minidistrito de Riego de Cajamarca (Roldanillo): there are three communities in this area, two both have separate irrigation and domestic systems, and one has an irrigation system that is also used for domestic purposes. The case study will study the advantages and disadvantages of having a multiple use system (in one village) compared to two single use systems in the other two villages.
- Microcuenca El Chocho (Cali): this catchment close to the Cali suffers from water scarcity, and piped water systems struggle to supply sufficient water for both domestic and productive uses. At the same time systems are affected by productive uses upstream.
Field visits to these sites were arranged for September 2005 and case studies will be completed by the end of 2005. Preliminary results will be discussed in the next Valle del Cauca learning alliance meeting to be held as an additional event of the AGUA2005 conference on 3 November 2005..
Four student research (MSc thesis) projects were also presented and discussed in the workshop. One of these is in the Valle de Cauca focusing on the domestic water system in a small town (Costa Rica) where pig rearing is an important water use. The other three studies are located in the neighbouring department of Quindio (where a learning alliance will also be developed on multiple uses of water) on themes relating to the legal and institutional framework relating to water supply systems and multiple use, catchment level water management, and farm level water management.
A number of specific actions for follow up work were identified in the workshop including a workshop to be organised by the PAAR programme on multiple uses of rural water supply systems. Annexes to the report include details of participants and further information.
Many rural and peri-urban water supply systems are used by families for productive as well as domestic use. However, in Colombia, productive uses of domestic systems are not adequately understood, recognised or planned for. This leads to a loss of livelihood opportunities for households that need to augment their income and food availability.
A workshop was held in Cali on 16 November 2004 involving organisations who were interested in finding better ways to manage and support multiple uses of water supply systems. The 28 participants were from government, NGOs, research institutes, and water supply committees. The activities of each of these organisations are summarised in this report.
The participants agreed in the workshop to jointly form a learning alliance to work together on research to improve policy and practice relating to the multiple use of water supply systems. This learning alliance will be supported by Cinara and the international research project on Multiple Use Systems (MUS) involving Bolivia in the Andes and other countries in Africa and Asia.