Infrastructure to generate more clean water and enable environmental sustainability in Bogota

Bogota is pursuing the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals and becoming a more friendly city for the environment and its citizens. Due to this, the city is working hard to develop infrastructure projects that will make it possible to have cleaner water discharges and better wastewater-treatment systems. 

Infrastructure that transports clean water back to its origin

Bogota’s drinking water comes from the surrounding paramos of Chingaza, Guerrero, and Sumapaz. When it arrives to the 8 million people that live in Bogota, it arrives pure, conserving the physical, chemical, and microbiological characteristics of the paramos’ waters.

However, does this drinking water come back to nature as pure as it came out?

To achieve environmental sustainability and offer a better quality of life, Bogota is committed to developing infrastructure projects that will enable the city to have stronger water treatment facilities. Thanks to this, wastewaters will return to their origin in a cleaner way. 

Among these projects, the Canoas Wastewater Treatment Plant is one of the most remarkable, due to its characteristics:

• It will be the second most important wastewater treatment plant in Latin America. 
• It will benefit more than 7.3 million people in the future. 
• It will treat 70% of Bogota’s wastewater and 100% of the wastewater that is produced in the municipality of Soacha. This will help to recover the Bogota River, which has been contaminated because of the activities of the city. 
• It will enable the sustainable use of the river water to irrigate the crops that grow in Bogota’s Savannah. 
• It will give a better quality of life to the 9 million people that live in the river basin through a cleaner and more aesthetic environment.
  
   

The construction of Canoas WWTP is the second most important project of foreign investment in the city (1.5 Million USD). 
Its bidding process will be opened soon. 
 

(Learn more about Canoas Wastewater Treatment Plant)

Infrastructure to reach the Sustainable Development Goals 

The infrastructure that is being developed in Bogota will contribute to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals because of its social and environmental impact. Specifically, it focuses on goal 6, Clean water and sanitation, regarding indicators such as: 

• Safe and affordable drinking water for all.
• Access to adequate and equitable sanitation and hygiene for all. 
• Improve water quality and substantially increase recycling and safe reuse globally.
• Substantially increase water-use efficiency across all sectors and ensure sustainable withdrawals and supply of freshwater.
• Protect and restore water-related ecosystems, including mountains, forests, wetlands, rivers, aquifers, and lakes.
• Support and strengthen the participation of local communities in improving water and sanitation management.

(Learn more about Sustainable Development Goals and goal 6)