Colombia suffers from water shortages. Especially in the northern part of the country, not enough water is generated for the population and animals. Therefore, the Colombian employers' organization ANDI, in collaboration with Antonio Nariño University, has developed a virtual training course for companies in water resource management.
Specially designed for business
The training is designed so that participants can design water-saving measures that align with the companies' business strategies and can be translated into concrete action.
In addition to methods to reduce water consumption, the training also features sessions on legal framework conditions, adaptation to corporate strategy, and organisational decision management. And at the same time, the participants must work with a concrete case from their company.
70 percent lower water consumption
One of the participants is the food company Colombina, which has used the training course to lower their water consumption.
"The trainings gave us new tools to strengthen our approach to water consumption and create concrete results. For example, our water consumption for washing utensils has been reduced by 70%," explains Arnold Higuita, who heads Colombina's environment department and completed the training in 2023.
In 2023, 54 companies have completed the first edition of the 60-hour training programme. Part of their costs were covered by Danish development aid. By 2024, the project must be financially sustainable - the 50 companies expected to participate will have to pay the costs themselves. In this way, the course will become a lasting part of the employers' organization ANDI's service offers to their 1400 members.