La Guajira Water and Sanitation Infrastructure and Service

The Bank support to the Department would aim to support the implementation of a broad departmental strategy for improving water supply and sanitation access in La Guajira. Bank support would be structured around a two-phase APL (non-consecutive and overlapping), with Phase I (the proposed Project) focused on the improvement of basic services in urban and periurban areas o f the Department while setting an overall Department strategy which includes rural areas, and Phase I1 focused on supporting rural water and sanitation solutions within the context of a broader assessment o f rural demands. The second phase would be designed to take into account the results o f the ex-ante development o f an Indigenous Peoples Plan and other analytical work to ensure the appropriateness of solutions and prioritization by rural indigenous communities of water supply and sanitation and to embed any such solutions with a participatory development effort. During Phase I, Bank support would be utilized to consolidate a departmental vision for rural solutions - from both a technical and, perhaps more importantly, institutional viewpoint - and to undertake a small pilot effort in delivering rural water supply and sanitation solutions, particularly areas linked to urban and periurban service delivery. Phase I of the APL is not expected to include any further urban investments and would instead be limited to the intervention in rural areas and, based on the results of preparatory work leading up to Phase 11, would likely also address broader issues o f water resources management and the competition for scarce water among agricultural and domestic use. Though water scarcity is a pressing issue, particularly in the north of the Department, the most urgent issues affecting availability of water supply for household use in urban areas relate to system investment and management, which would be addressed under Phase I.

To learn more about this sector, visit Water and Sanitation Public Private Partnerships.

Tracking Number: ColombiaLaGuajiraWater_2007_English