Deltares: Water Management Training for Colombians

Policymakers from a range of national Colombian government authorities visited Deltares last week for a knowledge-exchange program about water management. The emphasis was on governance aspects, the planning process and the use of information from model studies.

The participants included Claudia Pineda, the water director of the Ministry of the Environment and Sustainable Development, and Omar Vargas, the hydrology director from the national meteorological and hydrological institute, IDEAM. There were also staff from CorMagdalena (the management authority for the Magdalena River), the Adaptation Fund and DNP (the national planning department).

Support for river modelling

The training emerged from the modelling project for the Magdalena River. Deltares supports the management authority CorMagdalena with knowledge in the area of river modelling. One of the purposes to which this knowledge is put is the development of a hydrodynamic model.

Training strengthens cooperation between the Netherlands and Colombia in the area of water

The program was supervised by Professor Eelco van Beek a senior specialist in water management with Deltares, and Gerard Blom, the head of the freshwater systems unit. Alongside experts from Deltares, a range of people from Rijkswaterstaat also contributed to the program.

They included Ingwer de Boer, the former director of the Room for the River program. The training will boost collaboration in the area of water between the Netherlands and Colombia.

[mappress]

Press Release, April 17, 2014