Viña del Mar, Chile, March 3, 2013. This meeting brought together more than 40 American and European experts in water management in 18 countries. It was attended by 15 centers of excellence and 14 government focal points of the Latin American Network of Knowledge Centres in Water Resources Management (RALCEA) funded by the European Commission. Participants included delegates from various institutions in water issues, international cooperation (UNESCO-IHP, AECID), and representatives of the UN Development Programme (UNDP) and the European Commission (Directorate General for Development and Cooperation -EuropeAid, Joint Research Centre, and the European Union Delegations in Chile and El Salvador).

During the sessions, highlighted the progress of the project and the high commitment of the participants to continue strengthening the network and to achieve decisive results in view of its sustainability over time."These workshops have enabled integrated and synergistic work between the government sector and the scientific sector where participants have aligned their visions and expectations to establish common goals and objectives regarding water issues", emphasized Mr. Mario Schreider coordinators, Faculty of Engineering and Water Sciences of the Universidad Nacional del Litoral and Juan Ramon Candia, Chile Foundation.

Among the agreements reached in the Stakeholder Mapping workshop, 14 were selected to perform activities throughout 2013 to around three themes: (1) Integrated management of water resources and governance, awareness and participation, conflict resolution, (2) Management of watersheds and land use, (3) specific issues such as flood management, groundwater monitoring and sanitation.

The workshop resulted Water Quality and Sanitation initiatives defined three projects (indicators and methodologies for water resources and watershed observatory strategies for prevention and rehabilitation of eutrophic water bodies) and three capacity building activities (techniques sampling and analysis, monitoring water quality and quantity, treatment technologies and reuse). These actions seek to enhance the technical capabilities of decision makers, local managers and the same centers of excellence to improve the management capacity of water resources in the issues identified and to be carried out during the present year.

It was also presented the Guide Sustainable Water Management Initiatives in Latin America, manual of good practices and technologies that enable various governmental, social, technical and research know 29 case studies in such a strategic sector such as Water.

Finally, we evaluated the progress of RALCEA and activities, as well as the need to work on the sustainability of the network RALCEA to what was agreed to design a strategic plan and other sustainability.

Source: European Union Delegation in Peru