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This is the country with the most water funds in Latin America, this being a region that has a third of the fresh water in the world. The Agua Somos Fund protects water resources for more than 10 million Colombians living in the capital region, promoting sustainable projects. A richness that contrasts with the droughts of the Colorado River in the United States and with that of Monterrey, Mexico
María Elena Pulido changed the potato for ecotourism and, thus, takes care of one of the main sources of water in Colombia: the moors.
This peasant woman linked 2.5 hectares of her land to ‘Agua Somos’, one of the seven water funds that Colombia has and that works specifically in five municipalities near the country’s capital. All the tributaries that ‘Agua Somos’ protects are the source of water for more than 10 million people.
And one of those tributaries is born precisely in the Páramo de Guerrero, located in the municipality of Subachoque and where María Elena lives. She remembers that she used to spend up to 2,000 liters of water in a single fumigation for her potato crops. But since she became part of ‘Agua Somos’, she has changed her economic activity to protect the high Andean forest, which is located on her property and which is the thermal floor before reaching the Andean moor. Together they form the high mountain ecosystem.
Now, María Elena lives on an income from an Airbnb a few meters above her house. Although her apartment is rented by some young people from Bogotá, they pay María Elena 600,000 Colombian pesos each month, that is, a little more than 130 dollars. Thus, she guarantees the market for her family.
In addition, the 2,000 liters of water that he used to spend on fumigation now last between three and four months for Airbnb tenants. A change that shows the bet of the Water Fund: to have friendly projects with the environment, that contribute to taking care of the moors without the inhabitants having to leave there.
‘Agua Somos’ divides the work into three programs: Mi páramo, Agua por el Futuro, and Mi páramo undertakes. With all of them, they preserve almost 4,000 hectares of high mountain ecosystem, where the moors are.
Paramos are the source of water for 70% of Colombians
“The moors are huge water tanks. They store the water, retain it and release it slowly when there is no rain. That is called water regulation.” This is how Diego Arévalo, hydrologist and scientific adviser to the Bogotá Water Fund – Region, explains the importance of the moors.
And Colombia is the richest country in the world in terms of this type of high mountain, since there are around three million of the six million hectares of paramos that exist in the Andean nations (Peru, Ecuador and Venezuela).
This contributes to Colombia being one of the countries with the highest water yield on the entire planet. Arévalo explains that yield is how much water is produced per given space, adding that in Colombia that level is 60 liters per second per square kilometer. This is three times more than the Latin American average and six times more than the world average.
Water is scarce in the Colorado River and in Monterrey
But this abundance is not seen in all parts of the world. The Colorado River, one of the main riverbeds in the United States, is facing the worst drought in more than a thousand years. That’s because Lakes Mead and Powell, the nation’s two largest freshwater reservoirs, are at historically low levels.
For this reason, the federal authorities asked the seven states through which the river crosses to design a plan to reduce consumption by 40% of the total flow. But the state governments missed the deadline and there is still no route.
Monterrey, in the Mexican state of Nuevo León, faces a similar situation. Rainfall has been below average since 2015. Added to this is the increase in population. The metropolitan area quintupled, going from 1.1 million inhabitants in 1990 to 5.7 million in 2020, according to the National Institute of Statistics and Geography.
Both causes contributed to the fact that in Monterrey water had to be rationed to consume it only for six hours a day. A situation similar to the one suffered by 62% of the municipalities of Mexico in July of this year, for facing what the National Water Commission declared as water scarcity.
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