Latin America: Water authorities create regional committee to finance water resource protection

Peru’s national sanitation authority Sunass and its Brazilian, Chilean and Colombian counterparts will form a regional committee to promote an additional charge in water rates to help finance projects that protect water resources, state news agency Andina reported.

The committee will exchange best practices in the application of payment for environmental services (PES), to be charged in potable water rates.

The CSE system is currently being applied in the Peruvian town Moyabamba, where inhabitants pay an additional sol (US$0.34) in their water rates for water resource protection projects supervised by the natural resources institute (Inrena). The initiative is a joint effort of Sunass, Inrena and German technical cooperation agency GTZ.

Source: BNamericas.com (subscription site), 12 Jun 2008