Mucha agua, pocos derechos. Colombia una paradoja

David Sierra Sorockinas es abogado, Profesor de cátedra de la Universidad de Antioquia (Colombia) en el área de derecho público y abogado en las Empresas Públicas de Medellín. Miembro de WIN desde el 2013, ha frecuentado el curso en línea de WIN y la Escuela Virtual del PNUD. Se interesa de cuestiones de servicios públicos, derecho al agua y la lucha contra la corrupción. 

Según una acepción, más o menos usada por la mayoría, una paradoja es una expresión que envuelve una contradicción. Eso es justamente lo que quiero exponer, la contradicción que existe en Colombia cuando se habla del agua. Según datos, ciertamente confiables, Colombia tiene una ‘oferta’ hídrica aceptable, más allá de todos los riesgos que se puedan hallar (Ideam, 2010). Así las cosas, llegando una conclusión -acaso- rápida, el problema de este país no pasa por la escasez del recurso, sino por la falta de acceso del mismo. La escasez de cualquier bien, lleva consigo la falta de acceso, pero, una proposición diferente no nos ubica en el sentido contrario, es decir, la abundancia de un recurso (no) conlleva el acceso del mismo. La diferencia por la cual las personas acceden a los recursos no depende solo de la abundancia o no de ello, depende de otros factores, los cuales, por el espacio, solo me limitaré a describir.

Plans, money and flaws in the system

This blog entry was written by Janek Hermann-Friede, Monitoring, Programme Planning, Focal Point East Africa Coordinator at WIN.

Picture a parliamentarian, representatives of the ministry responsible for water, a consultant that developed an anti-corruption strategy for the water sector, experts from national and international NGOs, different donor representatives and a number of other stakeholders at the rear end of a long conference room. They all gathered to discuss integrity risks in water sector planning and budgeting. At the other end of the same room imagine a group of officials from provincial government in a lively discussion on the same topic. Now leave this room and picture a round table just outside the conference room, with a group of officials and technical water professionals from the district level. And guess what, they are engaged in the same discussion. This was the setup that absorbed participants during an afternoon session of a three day workshop on water integrity that was jointly organised by HELVETAS Swiss Intercooperation, IRC, WaterLex and WIN, with support from the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC). The Director of Water of the Ministry of Planning and Housing opened the workshop and the UN Special Rapporteur on the Human Right to Water and Sanitation, Catarina Albuquerque, contributed a video message on the link between water integrity and the human rights that can be accessed here.

Analysing the complexity of water sector planning, budgeting and monitoring in the Mozambique water sector

Integrity and the next generation

This blog entry was written by Janek Hermann-Friede, Monitoring, Programme Planning, Focal Point East Africa Coordinator at WIN.

UNESCO-IHE organised a week long introduction into the topic water integrity for its new batch of Msc students in October 2013. This course was organised in follow-up to the Water Integrity Forum that took place in June 2013. The whole week was put into the context of the Delft statement on water integrity. General concepts of integrity and good water governance were introduced to a group of approximately 150 young and mid-career water professionals. Among different presentations, an analysis of integrity issues in water resources management in the Netherlands was discussed to showcase that the topic was relevant globally and not only in developing countries.