Community organizations that supply water, a legacy of good living in contrast to colombian regulations

Development visions and their relation to community life

Abstract

Community organizations provide water to about 20,000 communities in Colombia, which is governed by a regulatory and institutional framework oriented under the premises of sustainable development and business management. This entails a strong contradiction between the community and good living meanings that come from a common history of collective effort to supply water to a large part of the rural-urban population in Colombia. The researchers present a documentary review of the historical evolution and the regulations applicable to these community organizations, and then, listening to the voices of the leaders of community organizations affiliated to the Confederation of Community Organizations of Water and Sanitation Services of Colombia [COCSASCOL] with presence in the departments of Valle del Cauca, Cauca, Risaralda and Cundinamarca, they characterize the contradictions that are experienced in the territory in the face of the regulatory framework.