Popayán and the UNESCO Chair on Sustainability explore new avenues of cooperation with AECID in water, heritage and territorial development

A delegation from the Municipality of Popayán and the UNESCO Chair on Sustainability at the UPC met in Madrid with the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID) to explore new lines of international cooperation integrating water management, cultural heritage, landscape and territorial development.

On 14 May 2026, a delegation headed by the Mayor of Popayán, Juan Carlos Muñoz, and the Director of the UNESCO Chair on Sustainability at the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC), Jordi Morató, held a working meeting at the headquarters of the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID).

The Popayán delegation also included Yessenia Velasco, Social Affairs Manager; Víctor Armando Martínez, Municipal Secretary for Planning; and, on behalf of the UNESCO Chair on Sustainability, Olga Lucía Sánchez, Global Project Promoter, and Victoria Santander, Coordinator in Cauca. On behalf of AECID, representatives of the Cooperation Fund for Water and Sanitation in Latin America and the Caribbean (FECASALC) and the Heritage for Development Programme, among other areas of the Agency, took part in the meeting.

Water and heritage as a single territorial project

During the meeting, the UNESCO Chair and the Municipality of Popayán presented a strategic proposal based on a central idea: water and heritage should not be addressed as two separate fields, but as parts of a single territorial project. The proposal connects the Colombian Massif with the city of Popayán through its water systems, the Molino and Ejido rivers, historic acequias, bridges and other elements of hydraulic heritage. This reading also incorporates the knowledge and practices of Misak, Nasa, Yanacona, peasant and Afro-descendant communities, recognising their role in the historical management of water and territory.

The approach is framed within UNESCO’s Historic Urban Landscape (HUL) framework, which makes it possible to interpret the historic centre not only as a monumental ensemble, but as a cultural, environmental and social infrastructure linked to the wider territory.

Two integrated lines of work

The proposal presented is structured around two major lines of work. The first is the development of Popayán as an urban node of WAMU-NET, the Global Network of Water Museums linked to UNESCO’s Intergovernmental Hydrological Programme, connecting the city with the Living Water and Biodiversity Museum of the Colombian Massif.

The second is the development of an HUL policy for the historic centre with water as its structuring axis, capable of integrating heritage characterisation, the updating of planning instruments, the recovery of the Molino–Ejido river corridors and training in heritage-related trades. The proposal also envisages the creation of a Strategic Water–Heritage Roundtable, led by the Municipality of Popayán, as a space for coordination among public administrations, communities, institutions and international cooperation actors.

Convergence with AECID’s cooperation priorities

The meeting made it possible to identify important areas of convergence with AECID’s lines of work. FECASALChighlighted the importance of ensuring sustainable services, protecting water resources and mainstreaming social participation and different worldviews into water management. For its part, the Heritage for Development Programmeemphasised the value of territorial and cultural landscape approaches, as well as the possibility of connecting heritage, water, local development and community participation.

In this context, historic canalisation systems and ancestral hydrotechnologies also emerged as areas of shared interest, understood as points of convergence between cultural heritage, traditional knowledge and the sustainable management of water resources.

Continuity of cooperation in Colombia

As a result of the meeting, it was agreed to continue exploring cooperation opportunities between AECID, the Municipality of Popayán and the UNESCO Chair on Sustainability.

Among the next steps, particular importance was given to presenting the proposal to AECID teams and holding a meeting with the Spanish Cooperation Office in Colombia, with the aim of further defining a possible joint roadmap on water, cultural heritage, landscape and territorial development.

The meeting thus reinforces a shared vision of Popayán as a territory where heritage, water, community and sustainable development can be integrated within a single international cooperation strategy.

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