By Juliana Castro Escobar
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 Bogotá with our Consultant, Juliana Castro Escobar who discusses Bogotá’s water crisis and the growing scarcity the city is facing…
I was born and raised in Bogotá, the capital of Colombia. When I talk about my country to people in London, they often imagine tropical beaches, blue skies, and warm temperatures. They’re usually surprised when I explain that Bogotá stands at 2,640m above sea level and is far from the idea of a tropical paradise. Known popularly as ‘the fridge’, the city has an average temperature of just 13°C (ranging from 7 °C to 21°C) year-round.
Growing up 2,600 meters high in the Andes mountains in one of the highest capitals in the world, means starting the day with cold, foggy, and very early mornings that usually are followed by intense midday sunshine and blue skies. However, almost every afternoon, a distinct smell in the air and a chilly wind unmistakably announces the start of the tropical rain. Bogotá receives an average yearly precipitation of 1091mm and, as in many tropical places, rain there is far from a light drizzle. As we say in Colombia, it often feels like the sky is falling. In a city of 10 million inhabitants, this usually means flooded streets, chaotic traffic jams, and crowded public transport filled with soaked commuters trying to make it home.
Bogotá | Photo by Random Institute on Unsplash
Yet, during my latest visit in January this year, I found myself missing Bogotá’s heavy rain for the first time in my life. I experienced unusually warm, sunny days without the typical afternoon downpours. To make things worse, the mountains surrounding Bogotá were on fire for days. The dystopian image of the mountains that define the city’s skyline burning was a stark announcement of what was to come: Bogotá’s most critical water shortage in history.
Bogotá’s mountains on fire, Jan 2024 | Photo by Juliana Castro Escobar
While many cities depend on aquifers for water, Bogotá relies primarily on rain-fed reservoirs that are highly sensitive to rainfall patterns. These reservoirs supply 550 million cubic meters of water to the city and surrounding municipalities. For instance, only in January 2024, Bogotá sold 4 million cubic meters of water to neighbouring areas. By March this year, the Chingaza System, which provides 70% of the city’s drinking water, was down to 16,97% of its storage capacity, its lowest storage record in history.
Chingaza Páramo | Photo by Juliana Castro Escobar
Water insecurity is driven by decreases in rainfall that these years were exacerbated by El Niño phenomenon, and higher temperatures due to climate change, which are projected to increase, disrupting rainfall patterns. Rising deforestation across the country and particularly in key forests and watersheds surrounding Bogotá worsen the situation. Ecosystems such as páramos – high-altitude Andean ecosystems that act as vital water sources feeding streams, rivers, and reservoirs – play a crucial role in the city’s water supply, and their degradation reduces water quality and availability. Additionally, a growing population is steadily increasing water demand, with the highest water consumption records reached in recent years.
Frailejón: endemic species from páramos in Colombia in Chingaza Páramo | Photo by Juliana Castro Escobar
In response, the city’s government has implemented strict water rationing measures. From April to June, neighbourhoods faced 24-hour water shut-offs three times per month, and households may face fines of up to $300 for exceeding monthly water allocations. The goal is to bring reservoir levels back to 70%, raise public awareness of water risks, and encourage behavioural changes in water consumption patterns. To lift the restrictions, the Chingaza Reservoir must receive more water than the amount that the city consumes for 15 consecutive days. However, despite intense rainfall in the last weeks, consumption still surpasses reservoir inflows, and the target remains distant with the Chingaza system still around 53% of its storage capacity. Thus, strict limitations will remain in place for both households and industries.
Infrastructure improvement has been a topic of debate, with studies for groundwater supply being conducted and proposals to build new reservoirs. However, new reservoirs take a lot of time and resources to build, and changes in rainfall patterns make relying solely on precipitation risky, as new reservoirs in the same basin cannot guarantee water security. Another plan involves expanding the Tibitoc water treatment plant, which treats water from the Bogotá River that feeds reservoirs like Neusa, Tominé, and Sisga. This aims to increase Tibitoc’s contribution from 26% to 50% of the city’s water supply, potentially covering 60% of Bogotá’s demand during prolonged droughts. However, delays have pushed the project’s completion from late 2024 to 2025. While this provides a temporary solution, concerns remain about water turbidity and whether this can fully address future scarcity with changing
rainfall patterns.
Frailejón: endemic species from páramos in Colombia in Chingaza Páramo | Photo by Juliana Castro Escobar
Alongside these, innovative nature-based solutions such as key ecosystem and watershed conservation and restoration are urgent to address water supply needs. A recent study by The World Resources Institute (WRI) and Conservation International (CI) highlights that the protection and restoration of native ecosystems, together with supporting communities to transition to new models of agricultural production, can cost-effectively improve water quality and strengthen resilience to water impacts.
As a result, during COP29 in Baku, the government of Colombia, Conservation International and the Green Climate Fund (GCF) announced the approval of a Project Preparation Facility (PPF) for supporting the ‘Building a Water-Resilient Bogotá-Region Landscape’ project. This initiative aims to enhance water security in the Bogotá region through integrated, ecosystem-based approaches to water management. The project seeks to encourage coordinated action among public and private stakeholders and introduce innovative financial mechanisms for water management, such as Payment for Ecosystem Services (PES), environmental fees, and allocating 1% of Bogotá’s unrestricted budget toward environmental investments. It also includes the conservation of protected areas and the restoration of 15,000 hectares of critical ecosystems for watershed conservation. Backed by a $72 million investment from the GCF and $11 million in co-financing by the city’s government, along with feasibility studies funded by the PPF, this project might represent an interesting opportunity for addressing water security challenges in the Bogotá region.
Effective crisis management in Bogotá will be crucial for promoting water security across Latin America. Initiatives like the reforestation of 2,500 ha of degraded land in key watersheds in the state of Espirito Santo, Brazil, showcase how nature-based solutions can mitigation droughts, improve water security, reduce flood risks, and cut costs for local water utilities.
