| Water resources management in Colombia | |
|---|---|
| Withdrawals by sector 2000/2001 |
|
| Renewable water resources | 2,132 km3 (1977–2001) |
| Surface water produced internally | 2,112 km3 |
| Groundwater recharge | 510 km3 |
| Overlap shared by surface water and groundwater | 510 km3 |
| Renewable water resources per capita | 49,017 m3 per year (2006) |
| Hydropower generation | 81% |
There is a long and established framework for water resources management in Colombia. The Environment Ministry and up to 33 Regional Authorities (the first one was created in 1954), are in charge of water resources management and policies at the national and regional and watershed level, respectively. Other sectoral ministries are in charge of water demand for energy, water supply and sanitation and water for irrigation.
Water resources availability per capita in Colombia was 45,408 cubic meters in 2007, way above the world's average of 8,209 in the same year and is particularly prone to flooding and landslides. Climate change is expected to highly affect highland Andean ecosystems, especially moorlands, due to increase in temperatures and aquifer-based freshwater supplies in insular and coastal areas due to sea level increases and saline intrusion.
Despite the developed legal and institutional framework for water resources management in Colombia, many challenges remain, including: (i) the consideration of water as an abundant resource affect the implementation of certain policies; (ii) fragmentation on water resources management responsibilities and lack of a consistent national strategy; (iii) some lack of coordination between the Environmental Ministry and the Regional Authorities; (iv) lack of capacities at the regional level; (v) governability challenges due to social and environmental issues such as deforestation, illegal crops, urban sprawl…etc.[1]