ABSTRACT
The city of Bogota places the most significant demands on the water resources of the Bogota River water system for public water supply, the generation of electrical energy, and the transport and dilution of domestic and industrial wastes. Irrigation is merely a secondary, although significant use of the water resource.
The character of the institutions responsible for the management of the water resource reflect the dominance of urban uses and distinguish this case study from the others. However, the central water management institution the Regional Development Corporation for the Sabana of Bogota and the Ubate and Suarez Valleys (CAR) is, at least potentially, a river basin authority.
The Bogota Water System. The River Bogota rises at some 3,400 metres in the Cordillera Oriental of Colombia and enters the River Magdalena, after a course of 270 kms, at 280 metres of altitude. Its drainage basin, of 5,996 km2, divides into two unequal and contrasting parts. The larger upper basin, the Sabana of Bogota, has a relatively temperate climate with moderate to heavy rainfall. The smaller lower part of the basin has a humid tropical climate.
The water system extends beyond the drainage basin of the River Bogota, however, to include adjacent high valleys from which water is diverted to the Bogota basin. The Chingaza project, a diversion from the river Guatiquia, is already in operation and a similar diversion is contemplated from an area to the southeast.
These diversions are the latest additions to a complex water system of control and diversion structures concentrated in the upper basin. The total storage within the Bogota water system is some 1,168.1 million 64m3, of which 226.2 million m3 correspond to the Chuza reservoir on the River Guatiquia. The most important control structures are sluices to divert water for public supply and for the generation of hydroelectricity.
The main uses of the River Bogota water system are for drinking and industrial water supply to the city of Bogota, for the generation of electricity, for the transport and dilution of domestic and industrial wastes, with only limited treatment prior to discharge, and for irrigation. Most use is concentrated in the upper basin. The water supply for Bogota and the irrigation diversions are made upstream of the city. The main sewerage discharges occur as the river passes the city and slightly further downstream. Only hydroelectricity generation occurs on a large-scale outside the upper basin. The main generating stations are located parallel to the Tequendama falls between the upper and lower basins. The lower basin is largely agricultural and places no major demands on the river.
The Water Management System. One agency has responsibility for integrated resource management: the regional development corporation, CAR. The CAR was formed in 1961 for the purpose of promoting economic development in the upper part of the valley of the River Bogota. Among the responsibilities assigned was that for the management of renewable resources. This responsibility was taken away in 1968 when the National Institute for Natural Resource Development (INDERENA) was created. Ten years later, in 1978, further administrative modifications led to its reassignment.
The jurisdiction of the CAR has recently been extended to include the whole of the River Bogota basin. It has among its function the task of administrating, on behalf of the nation, all renewable resources including waters in public use. To this end the CAR has authority to grant concessions, to regulate, and, if necessary, to suspend the use of all surface and groundwater within its region. This authority includes all diversions, the granting of rights for hydroelectricity and responsibility for watershed management.
The major users of water are the Bogota Water Supply and Sewerage Company (EAAB) and the Bogota Electric Company (EEEB). Both companies are owned by the municipality of Bogota. The municipal ownership of the two major user agencies, together with the participation of the mayor of Bogota, who is the president of both companies, on the board of directors of the CAR provides a relatively auspicious foundation for inter-institutional co-operation and co-ordination.
There is, however, only a restricted formal system of co-ordination between the CAR and these two major user agencies. The three institutions form the Co-ordinating Committee for the rivers Bogota, Ubate 65and Suarez. This committee, established in 1967, has as its prime function the integrated management of the reservoirs of the Bogota water system, but it also considers and makes recommendations on studies and works to improve the use of the water resource, including channel straightening and dredging and specific proposals for new reservoirs, as well as recommendations on hydrographic surveys and watershed conservation measures. The committee meets twice a month.
Outside this committee, to a certain degree the two municipal companies co-ordinate their activities directly between themselves. The influence of other municipal government agencies over the two companies is very limited, however, due to their size and power.
Within the national government, the National Planning Department has authority over both the regional development corporations and the activities of electricity supply and water supply companies. It can, therefore, intervene to achieve co-ordination between the three institutions (the CAR, EAAB and EEEB), particularly when major projects are under consideration.
An interesting and important characteristic of the CAR is that it has its own income from a special tax on property equivalent to 2.1/2 thousandths of the assessed value. The income from this tax has increased in the last few years and in 1985 it provided 90% of the total income of the CAR. In general, the CAR devotes the bulk of its income to investments, mainly in public works within the municipalities of the region, but a third, on average, has been invested in water management and pollution control.
The Effectiveness of Management in the Bogota Water System. In comparative terms, the management of the Bogota water system embodies a series of innovative features which could be applied with benefit elsewhere in Latin America. The system does show, however, some areas in which improvement could be made. The most critical areas appear to be the following: the effectiveness of the CAR as a management institution; the interrelationship between the CAR and the major water users; and the degree of efficiency in the overall management of the water system.
The effectiveness of the CAR in the practical aspects of resource management belies to some extent the authority which it formally possesses. The failure to assert authority—for example—the delays in the preparation and publication of a regional development plan appears to be partly due to internal inefficiencies. It has been recognized by the CAR that modifications are required to its administrative structure, but the proposals have not been implemented.
In establishing the policy for water resource development and management the CAR does not take full advantage of its position as the 66regulator of water use. For example, the work of the co-ordinating committee established with the EEEB and the EAAB has remained limited to the consideration only of ongoing routine management issues. The CAR has made no attempt to expand its role or to use the occasion for imposing its authority for long term management over the EAAB and the EEEB. On the contrary, within the committee the CAR has tended to act as the representative of just another water use, irrigation, rather than attempting to establish its primacy as the resource management agency.
Part of the institutional diffidence shown by the CAR in its dealings with the EAAB and the EEEB may be explained through the difficulties facing the CAR in attracting qualified personnel. The salary scale of the CAR is approximately 53% lower than that of the EEEB and a similar discrepancy exists with the EAAB. Another important influence over its institutional effectiveness may be its intermediate position between the two centres of political authority in Colombia: the central government and the large municipalities in this case, Bogota.
Despite, therefore, what appears to be an appropriate institutional structure for integrated water management within the Bogota water system, little has really been achieved. One major sign of this has been the failure of the institutions to react in any coherent form to the water quality problem. A further example can be found in the use of water for irrigation. The expansion of irrigation in the Sabana of Bogota is in potential conflict with energy production downstream, due to evapotranspiration losses, but the conflict is not being discussed and considered within the context of the whole regional water system.
