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Regulatory framework

  • They are a set of inter-institutional planning and coordination strategies formulated and executed with the aim of achieving the comprehensive harmonization of resources and the implementation of efficient and sustainable schemes in the provision of household public services of drinking water and basic sanitation, taking into account local characteristics, the institutional capacity of territorial entities and people providing public services and the effective implementation of regionalization schemes.
    The PDA has investments worth $1.5 billion in all departments except Arauca, for projects of:


    • Aqueduct for $825,676 million
    • Sewerage for $551,521 million
    • Aqueduct and Sewerage for $126,154 million
    • Cleaning for $24,813 million
    • Risk for $17,758 million
    • Rural Sewerage for $739 million

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  • With the Agua al Campo program, the Ministry of Housing, City and Territory seeks to close the gaps in coverage, continuity and quality in rural areas of the country, through the implementation of differential schemes. The program is aimed at municipalities linked to the Departmental Water Plans, rural providers and organized communities.

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  • Consider a special focus on water supply and basic sanitation in rural areas, in order to reduce the existing gap compared to urban areas.

    Due to the above, the Ministry, through the Vice Ministry of Water and Basic Sanitation -VASB, structured jointly with the DNP the CONPES 3810 of 2014 Policy document, in order to comply with the provisions of the PDN 2010-2014: “Define a comprehensive aqueduct, sewage and sanitation policy for the rural sector, which is financed with contributions from the Nation and territorial entities, which must be articulated with the rural housing strategies of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.

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  • The MVCT defines the “National Plan for Drinking Water Supply and Basic Rural Sanitation” with the strategic objective of ensuring access to drinking water and basic sanitation in rural areas and its sustainable management, through appropriate technological solutions and participation processes. active community.a, the National Plan for Water Supply and Sanitation in Rural Areas, is a national strategy that will benefit all rural areas of Colombia, prioritizing actions in the regions belonging to the Development Programs with a Territorial Approach - PDET. The plan defined in this document is an integral part of the sectoral strategy for the fulfillment of Sustainable Development Goal 6, which refers to guaranteeing the availability of water and its sustainable management and sanitation for all by 2030. In turn, this Plan is aligned with the National Development Plan 2018-2022 and what is established in line B. Clean water and adequate basic sanitation:
    towards responsible, sustainable and equitable management of the Pact for the quality and efficiency of public services:
    water and energy to promote competitiveness and the well-being of all.

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  • The objective of this document is to analyze the coverage data at the national level of the aqueduct, sewage and sanitation services, with source information from the 2020 validity period reported by the territorial entities in the year 2021, where the places with the highest attention from the government, discriminated by type of service and region. Likewise, a state of the national panorama is presented regarding the status of goals 6.11 and 6.22 of the Sustainable Development Goals - SDG.

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  • ARTICLE 3. Competencies of the departments. Without prejudice to what is established in other legal regulations, it is up to the departments to exercise the following powers related to the provision of public drinking water and basic sanitation services:
    1. Contribute to the provision of public drinking water and basic sanitation services through the promotion, structuring and implementation of regional schemes.
    2. Promote, coordinate and/or co-finance the operation of regional schemes for the provision of public drinking water and basic sanitation services.
    3. Ensure that the inhabitants of districts or municipalities not certified in drinking water and basic sanitation are efficiently provided with public drinking water and basic sanitation services, in the terms of Law 142 of 1994.
    4. Manage the resources of the General Participation System for Drinking Water and Basic Sanitation of non-certified districts and municipalities, with the exception of the Capital District of Bogotá.

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Institutional Framework

  • The Ministry of Housing, City and Territory defines and implements public policy through programs and projects that articulate access to water, basic sanitation, territorial planning, urban development, comprehensive management of water resources, housing solutions and sustainability, adapted to the needs of the territories to improve the quality of life of the population.

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  • The Vice Ministry of Water and Basic Sanitation is responsible for promoting sustainable development through the formulation and adoption of policies, programs, projects and regulations for the population's access to drinking water and basic sanitation. The Ministry issues the corresponding regulations, formulates programs and provides financial support when the municipality cannot directly attend to the investments required.

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  • It is a national entity, created by article 69 of Law 142 of 1994, as a Special Administrative Unit with administrative, technical and patrimonial autonomy, governed by the Political Constitution and the law; without legal personality, attached to the Ministry of Housing, City and Territory. Through Decree 1524 of 1994, the functions related to the establishment of the general policies of administration and control of efficiency of home public services, which article 370 of the Political Constitution entrusts to the President of the Republic, were delegated to it. Its main objective is to improve the market conditions of the country's aqueduct, sewage and sanitation services and contribute to the well-being of the Colombian population. Establishes the rules that all companies providing public services (ESP) of aqueduct, sewage and sanitation must comply with.

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  • To advise the National Government and to participate in the formulation of policies on matters within the competence of the Superintendency.
    2. To adopt the policies, methodologies, strategies and procedures to exercise supervision over the entities subject to its inspection, surveillance and control and the other activities to which Laws 142 and 143 of 1994 apply.
    3. Monitor, inspect and control compliance by the supervised entities with the provisions that regulate the proper provision of residential public utilities and the protection of users.
    4. To oversee, inspect and control the correct application of the tariff regime set by the respective Regulatory Commissions, by the providers of domiciliary public utilities.
    5. To issue special technical standards, interpretations and guides on accounting and financial information and information assurance, which must be produced within the framework of the Political Constitution and Law 1314 of 2009.
    6. To issue, when the Nation so requires for the granting of subsidies, certification on the correct application of the municipal decrees of adoption to the collection of the tariffs of domiciliary public utilities by the provider companies.
    7. Adopt the relevant decisions to enforce the enforceability of the presumed administrative act resulting from the positive administrative silence referred to in Article 158 of Law 142 of 1994, or in the rule that replaces, amends or repeals it.
    8. Administer, maintain and operate the Unified Information System - SUI, which will be supplied with information from public service providers subject to its control, inspection and surveillance, so that its presentation to the public is reliable, in accordance with the provisions of Article 53 of Law 142 of 1994.
    9. Provide control officers with training to enable them to better organise their control work, and to have the necessary information to represent the Development and Social Control Committees.
    10. Verify the technical, legal and economic incapacity of the providers of domiciliary public water and/or sewerage services that refuse to issue the certification of viability and immediate availability for the provision of these domiciliary public services and order, where appropriate, the granting of such viability and availability.
    11. Define the assimilation of main or complementary activities that make up the value chain of public utilities and the obligation to incorporate as public utilities companies.
    12. To oversee that the economic entities under inspection, surveillance and control of the Superintendency comply with accounting, financial information and information assurance standards, and to apply the penalties that may be applicable for violations thereof.
    13. To oversee that the providers of domiciliary public utilities publish the evaluations made by the External Auditors of Management and Results at least once a year, in the mass media in the territory where they provide the service, if any, and that they are widely disseminated among users.
    14. To instruct the supervised entities to demand only those requirements, formalities or procedures that are strictly necessary.
     15. To hear appeals against the decisions of the providers of domiciliary public utilities regarding socio-economic stratification when this has not been adopted by municipal or district decree, in the terms of paragraph 2 of article 6 of Law 732 of 2002.  
    16. To resolve appeals lodged against the administrative acts by which the constitution of the Development and Social Control Committees and the elections of their boards of directors, referred to in paragraph 9 of article 10 of Law 689 of 2011, are decided.   
    17. To issue the concepts that within the framework of the takeover and/or liquidation procedure correspond to the Financial Institutions Guarantee Fund under the terms of the Organic Statute of the Financial System and its regulatory Decrees, insofar as they are relevant and in accordance with the remission contained in Article 121 of Law 142 of 1994.
    18. To require modifications to the statutes of decentralised entities that provide public services, which do not comply with the provisions of Law 142 of 1994 or other laws that modify, substitute or complement it.
    19. Sanction, in accordance with the provisions of numeral 4 of Article 80 of Law 142 of 1994, companies that do not respond in a timely and adequate manner to user complaints.
    20. To order the removal of managers and members of the boards of directors of domiciliary public utilities when there is repeated non-compliance with efficiency indices, management indicators and quality standards.
    21. Order the liquidation of the intervened public utilities companies, when necessary.
    22. To issue certification to the National Tax and Customs Directorate (DIAN), on the accepted value of the actuarial calculation of public service providers, under the terms set forth in the regulations in force.
    23. Authorise the mechanisms for the normalisation of pension liabilities, as requested, after verification and analysis of the corresponding actuarial study, in accordance with the regulations in force.
    24. Any other functions assigned to it by the Constitution or the law.

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  • It is a social, civic and community organization, of a supportive nature, non-profit, private, autonomous, with legal status and its own assets, made up of the inhabitants over 14 years of age of a neighborhood, village or territory, which is They organize with the aim of solving the most pressing problems of their community.

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  • They are a plural number of people affiliated with both the Contributory, Subsidized regime and the poor and vulnerable population (linked), who have the right to receive services that promote their health and to use health services according to their affiliation system and demand them. , they will fundamentally ensure the quality of the service and the defense of the rights and duties of all users.

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  • It is a non-profit social organization, made up of the users of a rural or urban aqueduct system in charge of managing and optimizing the water resource to be distributed equitably and ensuring the support and maintenance of the system.

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  • In Law 1176, they are given the duty to provide public services, such as the provision of water.

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  • It is a georeferenced information system, with data on communities, systems, service providers and technical assistance providers. It allows the capture and processing of data, to facilitate planning, monitoring, analysis, generation of reports and decision-making actions. The use of SIASAR facilitates; i) Diagnose the situation of water and basic sanitation services in the rural territory of the country, ii) Support the planning, coordination and evaluation of the actions of the different actors in the sector, iii) Monitor the coverage, quality and sustainability of the services. rural water supply and sanitation services, iv) Record the performance of technical assistance providers, including their limitations in logistics, v) Measure efficiency and effectiveness of projects in the sector.

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  • In 1955 the aqueduct was separated from the tram and joined the sewer system, creating the Bogotá Aqueduct and Sewer Company -EAAB-, through agreement 105 of the city's Administrative Council. The development of studies to bring more water began. to Bogotá and began construction of the Tibitoc treatment plant, which was completed in 1959 with an initial capacity of 3.5 cubic meters per second. The 2 subsequent expansions now allow for a capacity of 10.4 cubic meters per second. This plant was the first large-scale system in the city. It is supplied with water from the Bogotá River that is pumped to the plant.

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  • We provide well-being to the inhabitants of the ten municipalities of the Aburrá Valley: Medellín, Bello, Envigado, Itagüí, La Estrella, Sabaneta, Copacabana, Girardota, Caldas and Barbosa. In eastern Antioquia we reach the municipalities of Rionegro and El Retiro through comprehensive management of the water cycle: supply of excellent quality water and collection and treatment of wastewater, services that we provide with certified quality in all phases of the process.

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  • EMCALI contributes to the well-being and development of Valle del Cauca, providing quality, timely and committed services to the environment, guaranteeing economic and social profitability and providing the conditions that facilitate the social and economic progress of the region.

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Colombia is rich in water, but that wealth does not reach all Colombians. Although it is one of the nine territories in the world with the greatest water resources, a third of its urban population is affected by water stress. As a result of climate change and population growth, water availability has been decreasing over the last two decades. From extreme droughts to severe floods, Colombia is already showing symptoms of water insecurity throughout its territory, reflecting its problems of water “excess, scarcity and contamination”.391 municipalities are already exposed to the risk of water scarcity, and the long-term trend indicates that many more will suffer the same fate.

Colombia

Waves

Links of interest:

Climate change is increasing rainfall anomalies, and average temperatures are projected to rise by as much as 2.14 degrees by the end of the century. The likely result will be more droughts and floods, increased frequency and intensity of El Niño and La Niña events, and the rapid and steady loss of glaciers, which have already retreated by 60% over the past 50 years.

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