Scaling up climate resilient water management practices in La Mojana region in Colombia

The Green Climate Fund (GCF) has been supporting the government of Colombia on a project which aims to enhance the climate resilience of vulnerable communities in the Colombian wetland region of La Mojana.

To date, the GCF has disbursed approximately U.S. $ 28,6 million of their $ 38,4 million contribution towards the scaling up of climate resilient water management practices in the context of this project. The project supports the Government of Colombia (GoC) in scaling up climate resilient integrated water resource management practices in La Mojana- one of the poorest and most climate vulnerable regions in Colombia. Extreme events, such as intense flooding and prolonged dry seasons have caused significant impacts to the population with climate projections expecting these to become more frequent and intense. Loss of agricultural crops that sustain livelihoods, significant changes to ecosystems that have previously provided a buffer to flooding, and adverse impacts from prolonged dry periods are common and worsening with time. In addition, climate change induced pressures are straining already stressed water sources in the region, affecting both supply and quality.

The La Mojana region experienced severe flooding in 2010, triggered by heavy downpours, which led to the loss of some 300 lives and internally displaced a further 2.2 million, causing billions of dollars’ worth of damage across an area of 1 million hectares. From 2013 onwards, a project entitled "Risk reduction and vulnerability to climate change in Colombia", was implemented in three municipalities of La Mojana with the support if UNDP and the Adaptation Fund. The present project builds on those results, scaling up activities with the support of the Green Climate Fund.

The activities include adopting a long-term - climate change risk informed - disaster risk reduction strategy that is based not solely on infrastructure but also on restoring ecosystem services for regional water management. Hence it revolves around restoring the original hydrology of the wetlands, adapting the local economy and livelihoods to the natural variation in the level of water in the wetlands through the seasons by directly empowering vulnerable communities and regional authorities to manage climate risks.

Local farmers are learning to adapt to the impacts of more variable weather patterns by working in harmony with nature engaging in the restoration of wetlands, planting trees and growing hardy rice varieties.

La Mojana is known as one of the poorest regions of Colombia suffering heavily from climate change, with intense flooding and prolonged dry seasons, changes which are  expected to intensify The La Mojana region features a complex network of more than 500,000 hectares of different types of wetlands, with swamps, marshes and streams. Both supply and quality of water resources are affected by climate change, which impacts negatively on both agricultural crops and ecosystems and negatively affects. The livelihoods of smallholder farmers.

The Climate Change Adaptation Action Plan for La Mojana  (La Mojana Action Plan) was developed following a series of studies, assessments and hydrological models of the La Mojana region. In the Mojana Action Plan, national, regional and local stakeholders were consulted which resulted in investments in adaptive and sustainable infrastructure, sanitation, socio-economic development, environmental dynamics recovery and strengthening of Governance and local capacities. The total budget if the project is US$117 million project, and is expected to  benefit 400.000 inhabitants across 11 districts in the departments of Antioquia, Córdoba, Bolívar and Sucre. In its approach, the project moves away from former reactive approaches which focused exclusively on the adaptation of infrastructure. Where investments are nevertheless made in infrastructure, these focus on housing, public works and wetland canal restoration.

According to the manager of the Adaptation Fund, Edgar Ortiz,: “we are committed to integral projects that not only contemplate infrastructure, but also include social actions that enable real improvement in the quality of life of the people, which is the main objective.“

A gender action plan ensures that the project responds to the differentiated water needs of men and women, ensuring equitable participation of both men and women in water supply solutions, adaptation of existing water infrastructure and in the installation and maintenance of rainwater harvesting tanks.

The project is being carried out by the United Nations Development Programme, the Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development and the Adaptation Fund with support of the Green Climate Fund and has been underway since 2017.

In the 2023 Performance Report it is reported amongst others that “60 water boards [have] been formed and/or strengthened through training on the management and governance of water resources. 238,143 people, of which 120,564 were women and 117,579 men from La Mojana, have further been informed and/or trained on issues of water resource management, climate change and wetland restoration, agri-food systems resilient to climate change, climate governance…  Community structures, along with the water boards are giving rise to a new way of thinking about resource management in the communities and are serving as a community platform for local development through community organization and participation.”

In addition, the project ensured the procurement of the remaining water harvesting systems - a key project milestone that will allow it to fulfil in its delivery of the expected project impacts. At the end of 2023, 4,154 households (16,272 people) had improved their living conditions with access to clean and safe water through the provision of 87 20,000 litre community rainwater harvesting systems supplying 1,352 people, 631 5,000-liter family systems supplying 2,524 people and some 12,396 individuals provided with water supplies through the optimization of 18 micro aqueducts.

Furthermore, progress has been achieved in the field of Wetland Restoration, Early Warning Systems and Agroecosystems and Rural Livelihoods. Despite these interventions, project risks do remain and derive from climate related hazards, as well as a deterioration of security conditions in some project target areas.