Access to water is threatened by activities such as mining, urbanization, forest cultivation of foreign species, unsustainable agriculture, and the use of toxic chemicals. In response to this problem, the Agua Para Todos project was consolidated, a multi-sectoral alliance led by ECOVIDA Corporation, which, with the participation of the global health company Baxter, seeks to strengthen water and food security, impacting seven municipalities in Valle de Cauca located along the Western Cordillera where tropical dry forests are present. (Cali, Dagua, Yumbo, La Cumbre, Vijes, Restrepo y Yotoco).

The objective is to reduce water scarcity for industries and people by reducing the vulnerability to climate change of water-producing ecosystems and the communities settled in the territories through an associative model that aims at the sustainable restoration of watersheds based on public-private partnerships with the community. As a result, Agua Para Todos has become a pioneer articulation model for our country's private, public, academic, scientific, NGO, and community sectors.

"Our initial goal is to restore five thousand hectares in seven municipalities in Valle del Cauca, fixing 165 thousand tons of carbon and increasing water infiltration by 975 thousand cubic meters per year, generating benefits for people and industry, and direct income for communities settled in 14 watersheds. We have reached conservation agreements on nearly 1,000 hectares and benefited communities in five watersheds. However, the greatest achievement is undoubtedly the union of wills, joining the efforts of all sectors around our common cause: the preservation of life and the sustainable development of our society," says Joaquín Navia, president of ECOVIDA Corporation.

The eco-social restoration model begins with the transformation of the communities and is based on four pillars:

1. Compensation: Reduction of social and ecological footprints

2. Restoration: Ecosystems and community health.

3. Biodiversity conservation: Food security and ecological balance.

4. Inclusion: Ensuring equity in access to opportunities and leadership within the communities, especially for women and young people.

"At Baxter, we are responsible for the care of natural resources that, like water, are an imperative input for the production of medicines that have been saving and sustaining lives for 67 years in the Valle del Cauca region. Therefore, this project has a direct and positive impact not only on the compensation of this vital resource but also on eco-social development, the empowerment of rural women, and the generation of self-sustainable enterprises around the communities we are part of in the seven municipalities that are part of this great initiative," says Andrea Cataño, Director of Government Affairs at Baxter and leader of Corporate Responsibility issues in Colombia.

A strong component of inclusion

The project has developed a close work with 11 women from the village of Pajuí in the sector of La Leonera in the Felidia river basin, where the need to build with this team of leaders a project of entrepreneurship that they have called the "ECOHUERTERAS" whose motto is "sowing and healing the Pajuí for the world" is identified.

This enterprise seeks to generate healthy food for their children since they are mothers who are heads of households, the result of which is not only the improvement of nutrition but also the establishment of a project for the commercialization of their crops and the support of their families. In addition, these women received technical advice, leadership school, planning, and organization.

"We celebrate this valuable alliance between ECOVIDA Corporation and Baxter, whose commitment is in line with the objectives of the government of President Gustavo Petro, which seek to organize the national territory around water and environmental justice, to address climate change and the protection of the country's biodiversity. This is the type of initiative we seek to support in every corner of Colombia to guarantee water sovereignty, preserve ecosystems, economic growth, and social development," said Carmen Caballero, president of ProColombia.