On October 19^th, we co-convened a roundtable on water governance at the Parliament of Peru. We can proudly say that we are efficiently mobilizing civil society and key decision-makers at the national level to share various approaches, experiences and proposals that will strengthen the multisectoral nature of sustainable water management in Peru.

Many of our partners were present: Agua-C, IPROGA, SUNASS, The Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, the Ministry of Economy and Finance of the Republic of Peru, CAF Latin America Development Bank and the Congress of Peru. The latter was represented by M. Juan Carlos del Aguila, the Parliament member who made arrangements for the event to be held at the Congress. Youth was also present through the participation of Maria Angelica Villasante, representative of Peru at the World Youth Parliament for Water, and three members of the Paraguayan Youth Network for Water, led by Joyce Mendes.

The event was an opportunity to present validated experiences of multisectoral water management and to analyze the weaknesses of the Peruvian legislation. We presented our experiences in the social management of basins and the results of our project validation with the Peruvian Andes indigenous communities. We also presented other experiences of water governance that have their legitimacy reinforced by the Blue Book and the public consultations around of the watershed.

“Multisectorality” does not refer only to government (agriculture, drinking water, environment, etc.), but also to social sectors with an emphasis on the most vulnerable people, including the youth (social multisectorality) and the waterheads territory (territorial multisectorality).

A key conclusion of the debate is that water-related infrastructure (whether it’s grey of green) will not be sustainable without a governance approach considering aspects such as land management, integrated water resources management, legitimacy in decision-making and the strengthening of community roles in managing multisectorial spaces. Participants called for a multisectorial water governance and public projects formulation mechanisms that take into account the many water-related Ministries and the several public bodies at the local, sub-national and national levels.

For this exchange at the Peruvian Parliament, we were thrilled to count on the presence of high-level actors:

The welcoming words were presented by Congressman Juan Carlos Del Aguila, Member of the Andean, Amazonian and Afro-Peruvian People’s Commission on Environment and Ecology.

The panel participants were:

• Congressman Wilbert Rozas, President of the Andean, Amazonian and Afro-Peruvian People’s Commission on Environment and Ecology.
  “The role of Congress in enhancing effectiveness in multisectoral water management”.

• Andrés Alencastre, National Coordinator for Agua-C.
  “Civil society and communities in the management of water basins, an invisible sector in water management”.

• Vladimir Arana, Programs manager, International Secretariat for Water, Montreal.
  “Water Infrastructure and Governance, Strengthening the Multisectorality of Water”.

• Eleonora Silva, resident representative – CAF Latin America Development Bank.
  “Financial and multilateral sustainability to strengthen the multisectorality of water”.

• Martin Jaggi, director, Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation
  “Elements to strengthen the multisectorality of water management”.

• Iván Lucich, surintendant at SUNASS
  “Multisectorality of water tariffs and their ecosystem services”.

• Hugo Perea, vice-minister of economy.
  “The multisectorality of water in investment and public accounts”

• Maria Villasante, representative of Peru at the World Youth Parliament for Water

Moderation: Carlos Loret de Mola de Lavalle.
Conclusions: Fanel Guevara Guillén, President of IPROGA.

We would like to thank Digital TV Peru (http://www.digitalperu.tv) who broadcast the entire event and provided us with photo free of charge. Thanks to them, thousands of people were able to attend the exchanges, thus helping to democratize ideas on water governance.

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