RESEARCH
Collaborative research to support water security and sustainable development in Colombia Newcastle University is forging partnerships with international and UK academics and water-based practitioners, policymakers and other stakeholders to address global concerns which will be discussed during COP26 in Glasgow.
Maggie Roe, Diana Marcela Ruiz Ordonez, Helen Underhill, Miguel R. Peña-Varón
Newcastle University
As the UN’s Sustainable Development Goal 6 (Clean Water and Sanitation) makes clear, water security is essential to human life, food and energy security, health and wellbeing, and economic prosperity. Yet, nearly 80% of the world’s population live in areas where water security is thwarted by pressures such as climate change, conflict, ecosystem damage, extreme weather, gender inequalities, land degradation, over-abstraction, pollution, poor governance, and uncontrolled urbanisation. In response to this urgent need, the Water Security and Sustainable Development Hub (https://www.watersecurityhub. org/) at Newcastle University was initiated in 2019 as a five-year project with the goal of investigating how water security could be improved for a more resilient future. The Hub is a significant international and interdisciplinary endeavour focused on place-based research in four countries: Colombia, Ethiopia, India, and Malaysia. Each country faces different development transitions that illustrate the global 40
challenges to sustainable water security. Interdisciplinarity is key to this project, which emphasises the significance of sociocultural factors and participatory research methods alongside the work of hydrologists, engineers, and scholars of water governance. With over 100 staff from 12 institutions, including early career researchers, established academics,
and a team of operational staff, the Hub also draws together community groups and local charities, global nonprofits, government ministries, regional and local environmental authorities, regional and municipal governments, and utilities’ companies. Newcastle University acts as the host institution for this project, backed by UK Research and Innovation’s 1. Thermal springs of San Juan, in Puracé. Source: Martínez J.2018
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