Andean System of Basins

Visit website www.condesan.org/andean

The "virtual" Andes Basin links catchments in different parts of the Andes to examine a range of issues, especially in the upper catchments: in Ecuador the problem may be a conflict over water supply to urban centers; in Peru, irrigation; in Bolivia, protection of indigenous rights; and in Colombia, biodiversity conservation.

The basins face three major challenges: rural poverty, widespread land degradation that harms water resources, and weak institutions for regulating and managing water. The region includes areas of very high biodiversity (and agro-biodiversity), which are under intensifying pressure from land use and climatic change. Water shortages continue to plague most areas and policy and regulatory mechanisms are urgently needed to make water distribution fairer.

The Challenge Program is generating knowledge and designing technology, tools and institutional models applicable across the Andean eco region, and, in some cases, beyond.

Research priorities include:

  • sustainable farming and natural resource management practices for water-stressed, steep-sloped areas;

  • new models for water legislation, protection of water rights, and compensation of upper watershed communities;

  • methods for organizing communities for collective action;

  • strategies—traditional and new— for dealing with climate-related risks in the highlands.

The regional approach, under the leadership of the Consortium for the Sustainable Development of the Andean Ecoregion (CONDESAN), will generate water-related research and development by diverse stakeholders and agents of change. A major benefit expected from this cooperation is greater investment in rural areas resulting in reduced poverty. In particular, isolated and marginalized communities in upper watersheds have much to gain.


Andean Basin Overview

Unless otherwise stated, numbers below represent combined totals of country-level

data (Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru)

Countries in the Andean System of Basins included in the Challenge

Program: Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru

Area: 3.8 million km2

Population: 89 million (2000)

Percentage Rural: 29% (2000)

People below poverty line (US$1/day): Bolivia, 14%; Colombia, 14%; Ecuador,

20%; Peru 15.5% (reporting year varies by country; mid- to late 1990s).

Contribution of agriculture to GDP: Bolivia, 20%; Colombia, 13%; Ecuador,

11%; Peru, 10% (2002 est.)

Climate: varies from humid and tropical to cold and semi-arid

Annual precipitation: 1,835 mm (average)

Total renewable water resources: 5,100 km3/yr (total)

Annual water use by sector, Andean subregion (includes Argentina, Chile and

Venezuala): agriculture, 36.5 km3 (73% of total); domestic consumption, 10.5 km3

(21%); industry, 3.1 km3 (6%)

Cultivated land: 3.7 % of total

Irrigated land: 30,870 km2

Rainfed land: 108,750 km2 (2000)

Protected area: 434,058 km2