By, Nathalie Suárez
Welcome to our latest series, Climate locals. We’re spotlighting members of the E Co. team and how climate change is impacting their hometowns. We are proud to be a global team that draws on first-hand experience from cities around the world. This week, we’re heading to Quito, Ecuador with our Senior analyst, Nathalie Suarez who explores the city’s climate challenges—rising temperatures, droughts, and energy crises—and highlights the vital role of ecosystem preservation and collective action for water security…
I live in the Metropolitan District of Quito, the capital of Ecuador, and the city I grew up in. It is located in the Andes, surrounded by 17 volcanoes which are all near the city and can be seen from it on a clear day.
Image by Vince Fleming via Unsplash
With a population of 2.6M people, Quito is located in the northern highlands of Ecuador, in the Guayllabamba river basin and has an altitude of 2850m above sea level, making it the second highest capital in the world. It is built on a long plateau lying on the east flanks of the Pichincha volcano, looming over the western side of the city. Due to its altitude and proximity to the equator, the city receives some of the greatest solar radiation in the world.
The city experiences a dry and a wet season per year. However, in recent years the annual temperature of the city has dramatically increased. This condition has altered the hydrological cycles, decreasing groundwater levels and affecting the availability of freshwater and precipitation.
During the last year a long drought period has caused an energy crisis, considering the country is highly dependent on hydroelectric energy generation. Last September, the Emergency Operations Committee declared a national crisis since the water levels in the main reservoirs, located in the Amazon and in the Andean region, drastically decreased after 71 days without rain. The Mazar reservoir, for example, was only 12m over the required levels for its regular operations.
The rainfall deficit in the whole country was evident: between July and September 2024 the levels were between 20% and 80% below normal in the coastal area; between 30% and 90% lower in the Andean region and between 20% and 60% less in the Amazon area. The government-imposed energy rationing measures at national level, with blackouts up to 14 hours a day, which were later reduced to 8 hours a day on average. Even with the reduction, however, some sectors continued with power outages of up to 10 hours at different times of the day until December last year.
The government was able to fill the energy gap to achieve the required 4,600 megawatts by contracting a barge for energy generation, purchasing energy from Colombia and reactivating existing thermoelectric infrastructure in the country. At the same time the rainy season has gradually arrived, helping to recover the water levels in the main reservoirs. However, it is important that Ecuador takes urgent actions to preserve its water sources taking into account that by 2050, it is estimated that drought scenarios will increase by 20%.
Quito is located in the páramo – a neotropical, high-altitude ecosystem – where preservation is vital for retaining rain water, and releasing it little by little into low-lying areas. Therefore, supporting collective action mechanisms for ecosystemic services preservation like the Fund for the Protection of Water (FONAG) is crucial. This initiative facilitates the protection of watersheds that supply water to the Metropolitan District, executing programs and projects for paramo conservation, ecological restoration and environmental education and promoting a new culture of nature protection and integrated management of water resources. Importantly, they are an example of how a wide range of stakeholders with aligned interests can pool resources to leverage additional funds to protect water resources.
This kind of initiative was first created in 2000 in Quito, Ecuador but nowadays there are other 26 initiatives distributed in 11 countries on the continent working for the same purpose. They are all members of the Latin American Alliance of Water Funds, supported by the Inter-American Development Bank, among other multilateral financing organisations. The Alliance supports Water Funds through scientific knowledge to achieve and maintain water security with nature-based solutions; systematisation, management and dissemination of knowledge; capacity development and technical support
To tackle the impacts of climate change at a watershed level, E Co. designs projects and programmes that integrate existing multi-stakeholder initiatives that aligns goals and objectives, with fit-for-purpose incentives.
