Agua Para Todos / Water for All ^Featured

Original project description

Access to clean water is an emotive issue in developing countries that sometimes leads to civil unrest and major social problems. The SEED-winning project ‘Water for All’ was inspired following the well-documented ‘water wars’ in Cochabamba. The municipal water company, a private consortium, the local community and a non-profit, micro-credit foundation are working together to create community-owned secondary water distributions in poor peri-urban areas of Cochabamba.
In the suburban areas of Cochabamba, Bolivia, the municipal water company, SEMAPA, lacks the finance to build secondary water distribution networks, leaving hundreds of homes without a connection to the main water supply. In response, local communities have organized themselves into “Water Committees”, but their attempts to build their own water networks have taken place in an uncoordinated, inefficient way.
Agua Tuya/PLASTIFORTE, a private consortium, has been manufacturing pipes and building water distribution systems for the Water Committees for the past eight years, but the work has not been coordinated with the water company.
The Agua Para Todos initiative takes the pieces of the puzzle and recombines them in an innovative partnership model. By combining its partners’ resources, the partnership overcomes the problem of the prohibitive costs of new secondary water connections, and reduces end-user water cost. Further, by embedding the participation of the people directly in water provision, the partnership creates socio-political stability in an area known previously for its volatility.

Current project updates

Last updated: 18 August 2011

Five years after the Water for All alliance was created between the Municipality of Cochabama, the city´s water municipal service (SEMAPA), AGUATUYA and the communities, 25,000 inhabitants of peri urban Cochabamba have access to modern water systems that provide water service 24 hours a day. During this time, the municipality of Cochabamba and the users have jointly invested over one million US dollars.
With the water distribution networks in place, families save up to 40% in water provision, decreasing the cost of water from 4.30 USD/m3 to 2.50 USD/m3.
With the future interconnections to the municipal service (SEMAPA) cost will go down an additional 35% (to around 1.00 USD/m3).
In addition, with Water for All, the organizational capacity of communities and neighborhoods, key players in this process, has been strengthened and a multi sector partnership model consolidated.

Consequently, a new institutional culture and governance has been generated by the synergy of each members´ skills, capacities and knowledge.
Complementing the water systems provided by Water for All, the project originated other initiatives that contribute to their sustainability: the implementation of a network of INFOCENTERS in the vicinity of the communities, a website (www.aguatuya.org) with useful information and an ongoing course of technical and administrative training for water committees.

Moreover, in March 2009, UN-HABITAT, interested in the alliance, signed an agreement with the Municipality of Cochabamba that promotes studies on innovative technological alternatives in sanitation for peri urban areas; thus opening a new field of action for the project. In late 2010, as a result of this support, an eco friendly residual water treatment plant and prototype composting toilets were successfully built.

Water for All in numbers
Total Investment [USD] 1,219,134
Total Investment by the Community or neighborhood [USD] 521,972
Total Investment by the Municipality [USD] 697,162
Total Number of Projects Completed [USD] 34
Total Number of Beneficiary Families 4,376

Growth plans description

Water for all is looking forward to replicate the project in other municipalities and renew the agreement with the Municipality of Cochabamba.

Current Needs

At present, AGUATUYA is looking for new partners that would like to invest in Residual Water Treatment Plants for other communities.

Project Gallery

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