Colombia launches campaigns to mark World Water Day
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The Colombian public and private sectors have launched campaigns to raise awareness of water conservation to mark the World Water Day that falls on Tuesday.
Edgar Erazo, director of environmental management of Colombia's Ministry of Environment, told Xinhua that Colombia, though with favorable natural conditions among Latin American countries, still needs to enhance the campaigns and legislation to ensure the protection of precious water resources.
He said as Colombia has lost some of its potential water resources, the government has adopted a national policy of integrated water resources to better manage and restore water bodies that are polluted and save those that are not.
"Our target population is children and youth. We have environmental classes in schools and are now developing a strategic campaign 'Take conscience or take nothing,'" Erazo said.
The theme for this year's World Water Day is "water for cities," involving issues of climate change and the impact of rapid population growth in cities.
He noted that Colombia has a water yield of 61 liters per second per square kilometer, three times as much as Latin American average level. In the country's capital Bogota, for instance, a wide range of water resources from the paramos in its surrounding areas provide its 8-million population with water of excellent quality.
However, Erazo said because of the growing population, climate change and pollution, water supply from the Sumapaz Paramos, which provides nearly 70 percent of water in the country, has been deteriorating in recent years.
He said the human activities of these 8 million people had caused deterioration of water quality in the city although the country has 84 km of urban rivers.
A variety of events were sponsored by environmentalist groups and local government to help raise public awareness of water conservation.
Liliana Reina, a student of biology at the National University of Colombia in Bogota, told Xinhua she values the awareness activities, but said that is not enough to create a strong awareness for the long run.
She said it should be a conscious daily action to save water, and it is not confined only to water, but all the resources. "One thinks we will never run out of water and it is very easy to have water here, but no, you should always save," she said.
