2nd SWITCH Scientific Meeting Dan Panorama Hotel, Tel-Aviv, Israel

The water and sanitation sector is beginning to recognise the importance of selecting sustainable wastewater management practices and technologies. This recognition is related to the limited impact of much of the investment made in pollution control from wastewater in Colombia, and in other Latin American countries. Important problems to achieve sustainable solutions include: lack of holistic vision; insufficiently working with a water basin perspective; inadequate norms and regulations; focus on “end of the pipe ” solutions aimed at the construction of wastewater treatments plants, poor community involvement and institutions working in isolation. As part of its work to contribute to resolving this situation, Cinara Institute of the Universidad del Valle, of Cali, Colombia, is developing a conceptual model for technology selection for pollution control from municipal wastewater. Initially the study has considered communities with less than 30.000 inhabitants. Now the possibility of involving cities of larger size has been stimulated with the participation of the Cinara Institute in the “Sustainable Water Management Improves Tomorrow's Cities Health ” SWITCH Project. In this context and with the support of the environmental authority of the region (CVC) and local institutions, a project was carried out to choose the best technology for Buga, a town of approximately 100,000 inhabitants located in the geographical valley of the Cauca river, the second most important river in Colombia