Más allá de la cuenca hidrográfica: teleconexiones del agua en la cuenca del río Campoalegre en Colombia

The document examines the limitations of Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) when applied strictly to watershed boundaries, using the Campoalegre river basin in Colombia as a case study. It highlights how coffee production and hydroelectric power create impacts and dependencies that transcend local boundaries, such as global export markets and downstream ecosystem effects. The text introduces the SEI 'Water without Borders' initiative, which aims to integrate water teleconnections, early ecosystem consideration, and multi-stakeholder participation into water governance.

• The traditional Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) approach, which focuses on the watershed as a defined geographic limit, can treat these areas as "closed" planning spaces. This potentially ignores processes operating outside the basin that may have a greater influence on water management outcomes than local processes.
• In the Campoalegre river basin, coffee production demonstrates a disconnect between local water use and global consumption. While coffee is the most important agricultural activity in the area, only 5.3% of coffee produced in Risaralda is consumed within Colombia, with 40.9% exported to countries including the USA, Germany, and Belgium.
• Coffee processing in the Campoalegre basin significantly impacts water quality and quantity. Traditional processing requires 40 liters of water per 1 kg of dry parchment coffee (CPS) and generates approximately 115 g of COD per kg produced, totaling an estimated 1,725 tonnes of COD per year when produced traditionally.
• Hydroelectric power provides approximately 70% of Colombia's energy demand. In the Campoalegre basin, the evaluation of small hydroelectric plants (PCH) requires analyzing cumulative effects that extend beyond the basin's limits, specifically affecting the Cauca River, which receives the Campoalegre River.
• The SEI 'Water without Borders' (Agua sin Límites) initiative proposes a management approach based on three pillars: water tele-connections, early ecosystem consideration, and multi-interest participation approaches, using case studies in the Magdalena-Cauca macro-basin (Colombia) and the Mekong basin (Southeast Asia).

APA

Stockholm Environment Institute (2021). Más allá de la cuenca hidrográfica: teleconexiones del agua en la cuenca del río Campoalegre en Colombia. https://www.sei.org/featured/mas-alla-de-la-cuenca-hidrografica-teleconexiones-del-agua-en-la-cuenca-del-rio-campoalegre-en-colombia/

Chicago

Stockholm Environment Institute. Más allá de la cuenca hidrográfica: teleconexiones del agua en la cuenca del río Campoalegre en Colombia. 2021. https://www.sei.org/featured/mas-alla-de-la-cuenca-hidrografica-teleconexiones-del-agua-en-la-cuenca-del-rio-campoalegre-en-colombia/.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Stockholm Environment Institute |title=Más allá de la cuenca hidrográfica: teleconexiones del agua en la cuenca del río Campoalegre en Colombia |date=22 March 2021 |url=https://www.sei.org/featured/mas-alla-de-la-cuenca-hidrografica-teleconexiones-del-agua-en-la-cuenca-del-rio-campoalegre-en-colombia/ |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{stockholmenvironmentinstitute2021all, author = {{Stockholm Environment Institute}}, title = {{Más allá de la cuenca hidrográfica: teleconexiones del agua en la cuenca del río Campoalegre en Colombia}}, institution = {Stockholm Environment Institute}, year = {2021}, month = mar, url = {https://www.sei.org/featured/mas-alla-de-la-cuenca-hidrografica-teleconexiones-del-agua-en-la-cuenca-del-rio-campoalegre-en-colombia/}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }