La Guajira Departmental Water Plan (World Bank project of specialized operators and rural reservoirs)
Description
Water and sanitation infrastructure and service management project in La Guajira (2007-2018) financed by the World Bank. It introduced specialized operators for urban service provision in seven municipalities, built 10 rainwater reservoirs for rural Wayuu communities, and expanded micrometering and quality monitoring. It benefited ~409,160 urban residents with water and ~362,131 with sanitation; it reduced rural water hauling time from more than 5 hours to less than 1 hour. The PDA pilot proved replicable and was scaled to all 32 departments.
Lessons learned
The PDA with specialized operators proved replicable and was scaled nationally to all 32 departments; the remaining challenges are expanding water supply sources and strengthening institutional capacity for sustainable service provision, especially in dispersed rural areas.