Water resources

'Microcuenca de la Quebrada El Chocho'

The El Chocho catchment located in the mountains above Cali in Valle del Cauca Department, Colombia is one of the seven rivers that later flow through the city. This 10 km long and 20 km2 catchment is home to about 15000 people in a rural area that is however strongly influenced by the proximity of the city.

The El Chocho catchment located in the mountains above Cali in Valle del Cauca Department, Colombia is one of the seven rivers that later flow through the city. This 10 km long and 20 km2 catchment is home to about 15000 people in a rural area that is however strongly influenced by the proximity of the city.

The environmental authority in the department, CVC, has currently authorised 22 rights of water abstraction from the El Chocho stream. The largest authorized amounts are for six community-managed gravity-fed piped water supply systems or acueductos. These convey water to the main settlements although some of the users are dispersed over considerable distances. In total, these abstractions account for about 70% of the allocated rights and in parts they abstract all the available flow of the river. The acueductos abstract relatively large volumes of water, equivalent to between 100 and 700 lpcd.

The abstractions are especially large in the upper part of the catchment (and also one lower system, Las Palmas, further down that has two abstractions) because the systems are also used for irrigation, even though the authorisations only permit domestic use. Irrigators here specialise in growing medicinal plants and herbs and livestock are kept in some farms. Actual amounts of water supplied are, however, lower due to system losses. The system that serves the largest number of households (1650 families) in the more densely-settled lower part of the catchment (e.g. 20 persons per hectare in Montebello compared to 1-2 elsewhere) abstracts the least water on a per capita basis, partly due to limited availability of water as a result of the upstream abstractions. In this area, there is also less use of water for productive activities given the high density of settlement.

Two of the smaller systems do manage to supply water for 24 hours a day, however the others offer less continuity in service, for example 2 hours every 3 days in Montebello or 8 hours every two days in Campoalegre. Because of the low continuity, many households in these locations have large storage tanks. In Campoalegre, productive uses at the household level have also been banned with the support of the health secretary. In some of the other systems, productive uses are permitted although technically the users should also have a derogation (on a household basis) from the environmental authority to permit irrigation use. In one system, Las Palmas, there are two separate distribution networks supplying better quality water abstracted further upstream for domestic use, and poorer quality water taken further downstream for irrigation of gardens and some crops.

The systems have low flat-rate tariffs (USD2.8-3.6 per month in the larger systems) that, in general and given the high non-payment rates (25-50%), are not sufficient to cover operation and maintenance costs. These systems suffer from low continuity of service and amongst other factors, including poverty, therefore people are reluctant to pay their bills. One of systems is very well-managed, largely because of a motivated and powerful leader, and has a stepped tariff with low default rates on payment (5%). Because this system is well organised, they attract more investment, however, communities with less capacity to organise and manage find it more difficult to get resources and are caught in a vicious cycle of lack of resources and poor services.

Additionally to the domestic water abstractions, the El Chocho, in the upper part of the catchment is used for both legal and illegal abstractions by households settled outside the main villages. As well as the pressure of abstractions, this small catchment has suffered considerable environmental change linked to land use change, increases in population, discharge of untreated domestic wastewater, poor management of solid wastes, and discharge of the acid waters from numerous small coal mines. These circumstances have led to competition over access to water and concern over the degradation of water sources by activities that affect the quality of water in the stream. However, powerless to intervene, people have been forced to accept most of these impacts, and the environmental authority has relatively information or capacity to address the problems.

In order to face these challenges that threaten their access to a scarce resource in high demand, communities have had to improve their skills and organisation. People have tried for example, unsuccessfully, to organise a water committee for the catchment. Lack of resources, support and capacities were reasons cited for the failure of this initiative.

This report presents an analysis of the catchment, describes the competition generated between water users and the role of both internal and external stakeholders, and proposals for strategies and measures that could protect the catchment and ensure sustainable water supplies in the future. These include: to monitor water quality (currently there is no monitoring of a source that supplies 15000 people) and the wastewater discharges, to develop and monitor environmental management plans for the coal mines, to raise awareness on improved agricultural and sanitation practices, strengthening the concerned environmental authority, controlling future settlement, supporting local water organizations, and facilitating better coordination between internal and external stakeholders.