Biodiversity loss and ecosystem degradation require land use planning and environmental protection from a hydrological basin approach, focusing on sustainable natural resource management (Craven et al., 2017; Kennedy et al., 2019). Basins concentrate water from precipitation, creating interdependence between water users at the river basin level (Dourojeanni et al., 2002; Braz et al., 2020). Although internationally promoted, implementing this approach on the administrative and financial levels has been challenging (Vieillard-Coffre, 2001; Ghiotti, 2006).

In Colombia, river basin planning dates back to the 1950s, with the first management plans for the Cauca River basin (Buitrago-Bermúdez, 2014). Regulations have since evolved, with the hydrological basin regime governed by decree-law 2811/1974, law 99/1993, and the National Integrated Water Resources Management Policy. Due to social issues like violence, corruption, and weak state institutions, the challenges to implementing the regulations persist (Buitrago-Bermúdez, 2014; Castro-Buitrago et al., 2018). The policy stresses the importance of efficient water management, including sewage and saving strategies, which influence water flow quality and quantity (Dourojeanni et al., 2002). However, service execution remains inadequate. Around 15% of Colombia’s population lacks water services, and 33% of municipalities lack proper wastewater disposal systems (Alfonso and Castro, 2022). In addition, service fares have increased significantly, leading to reduced consumption and service discontinuation due to non-payment, especially in low-income communities. Moreover, water quality is often poor, and supply interruptions are common (Alfonso and Castro, 2022).

Further challenges include significant gaps in water service data, as many suppliers provide limited information or operate irregularly without legal status or water permits (Prieto Acero and Murcia Hernandez, 2011; Quintero-Culma and Romero-Bustos, 2020). These irregularities hinder adequate service monitoring, which, according to Colombian law, is formally the responsibility of the state in the case of water supply and sanitation services. Law 142 of 1994 allows third-party participation in the provision of these services, largely as a result of privatization processes and the state’s structural inability to ensure nationwide coverage (Montoya-Domínguez and Rojas-Robles, 2019). This regulatory framework raises concerns regarding the human right to water, as service provision is frequently conditional on users’ ability to pay, disproportionately affecting low-income and rural populations (Bernal, 2022).

In this Colombian context, community-managed water supply systems (CWS) provide approximately 40% of rural water supply, involving more than 12,000 local providers nationwide (Moncada-Mesa et al., 2013; Ecuyer, 2022). However, the mere existence of CWS should not always be interpreted as a voluntary model of service provision, but rather as a collective strategy to respond to structural inequality in access to essential services such as water. Indeed, in most cases, community management is a territorial and political response to injustices in access to domestic water services, mainly in rural areas. From the perspective of Latin American political ecology, approaches based on communality and community interconnections are proposed as alternatives to the crisis of civilization and neoliberal domination. These proposals seek a more equitable and sustainable relationship with common goods, including water (Roca-Servat et al., 2021). Specifically regarding access to and exclusion from water services, Swyngedouw (2004) demonstrates, in the case of Guayaquil, that these dynamics are not conditioned by the physical availability of water in the territories, but rather by the socioeconomic and political-geographic power relations that structure them.

Despite their role in supplying water services in Colombia, the CWS still face challenges related to their lack of formal recognition and registration. An official response from the Governor’s Office of Caldas highlighted that the irregular legal status of CWS significantly limits the state’s ability to track service provision and ensure regulatory oversight. This situation underscores the need for systematic assessment of CWS in order to improve understanding of community-based water governance and its implications for ecosystem protection at the river basin scale.

By using the term ‘CWS’, this paper seeks to acknowledge the heterogeneity of these community-based water providers, which in some cases deliver treated water and in others supply untreated water. In both scenarios, however, CWS are deeply embedded in local identities, territorial practices, and traditional ecological knowledge, playing a crucial yet insufficiently recognized role within Colombia’s formal water governance structures (Bernal-Pedraza, 2021).

Faced with increasing demand for water for multiple, often conflicting uses (human consumption, agriculture, livestock, rural tourism, etc.), CWS are finding it difficult to operate, among other things, they must comply with regulations designed for large companies. CWS in Colombia have proven to be a supportive and cooperative response to the lack of infrastructure, but they face regulatory barriers and external pressures that complicate their sustainability (Murcia-Castillo and Francel-Delgado, 2022).

Following Sack’s original approach (Sack, 1986), territoriality is a social construction that depends on who controls whom and for what purpose. In the case of CWS, generally managed by farmers in rural areas, territoriality oriented toward sustainability refers to the social arrangements that enable the collective care of water, both for its preservation as a natural resource and for human use, while taking environmental and social needs into account. In this sense, territorialities for sustainability align with, or closely resemble, what are known as “hydrosocial territories,” understood as “spatial configurations of people, institutions, water flows, hydraulic technology, and the biophysical environment that revolve around the control of water” (Boelens et al., 2016).

This article focuses on analyzing four CWS in the Guarino River basin in central Colombia, a region that provides key ecosystemic services like water supply for over 115,000 residents of Caldas and Tolima (Tobón, 2013). Despite this, official records on water and sewage systems are limited. Previous studies (Quintero-Jiménez, 2022) highlight alarming issues related to ecosystem health and water quality, as well as other challenges CWS face. Threats include pollution, erosion, deforestation, and untreated wastewater entering river basins.

Academic interest in the Guarino River basin has increased over the past decade, with research focusing mainly on social and environmental issues. Fewer studies have explored the basin’s physiological aspects. Notable contributions include Walteros Rodríguez and Daza Castro (2008), who used bioindicators to assess water quality, and Benjumea-Hoyos et al. (2014), who analyzed water transfer. Grajales-Noreña and Naranjo Cárdenas (2021) assessed environmental risks linked to the hydroelectric project in Marulanda’s Montebonito district. Portuguez (2015) estimated direct runoff using GIS, while Ríos-Pulgarín et al. (2016a, 2016b) studied the hydrological cycle’s role in fish distribution. On social and environmental topics, studies on citizen participation and conflicts related to hydroelectric projects stand out (Munévar-Quintero and Valencia-Hernández, 2015; Munévar-Quintero, 2011; Cifuentes-Osorio et al., 2021). However, few studies address water supply and none have studied the water supply systems in this basin in a comprehensive manner. Moreover, most focus on the issue of drinking water treatment, such as Florez Guerrero (2022), who evaluated the hydraulic function of the El Llano treatment plant in La Dorada (Caldas). This represents a gap in literature, in particular for the case of Marulanda, for which no studies on water supply systems were found. This paper aims to contribute to filling this gap in literature on community water governance in this territory.

The article will present the research methodology, discuss the findings, and offer conclusions on integrated river basin planning for water management in Colombia.

This is qualitative research using the ethnographic method and documentary review as the main sources of information. Thus, the data collection techniques were based on: 1) documentary analysis of scientific works, official documents and documents provided by the CWSboards of directors; 2) direct observation based on various tours to identify the functioning of the CWS and; 3) the application of semi-structured interviews by means of intentional sampling and by convenience, as we sought to know the perspective of members of the boards of directors, CWS users, employees of public entities, among others.

To establish which CWS would be involved in the study, access to official information from Caldas Governor’s Office was requested through the right of petition. This allowed us to identify two public water and sewage service suppliers, one of whom also provides sanitation services. The first supplier, EMPOCALDAS S.A.E.S.P., operates with private funding and provides CWS service to 395 users and sewage to 383. The second supplier, Montebonito Marulanda Public Services Association, provides CWS service to 282 users, and sewage and sanitation to 250. The latter is considered a CWS for this study.

Marulanda’s Municipal Development Plan (2020–2023) was consulted as complementary information. We also conducted on-site visits to Marulanda’s Mayor’s Office and public services companies in the town’s urban center. Three other informal suppliers considered CWS were identified afterwards. These suppliers are located in El Páramo, Naranjal, and Santa Clara veredas (Figure 2).

The four CWS studied come from historical processes of collective action within local communities to guarantee water supply both in rural and urban areas of Marulanda. Fifty-one interviews were conducted amongst beneficiaries, workers and board members of the working CWS in El Páramo, Naranjal, and Santa Clara veredas, and the urban centre of Montebonito district. Most interviews were conducted in Montebonito (22), followed by Santa Clara (15), Naranjal (10), and El Páramo (4). This information was built both via semi-structured interviews. In addition, coding was used as an analytical tool for the organization and treatment of the data derived from the interviews, using the NVivo software.

For the application of the interviews, a semi-structured guide was constructed with five thematic blocks: (1) knowledge of the CWS and life history linked to them, (2) Perception of the functioning of the CWS, (3) Participation in the CWS, (4) The CWS and the protection of the environment, and (5) Articulation of the CWS in networks of different scales. It is also relevant to mention that it was not necessary to adapt the questions for the different participating groups, since they were formulated with the objective of congruently covering the perceptions of the different roles associated with CWS. However, for the members of the boards of directors, CWS workers and public employees, emphasis was placed on their opinions on water quality, forms of participation in water management and the processes of consolidation of the CWS over time. For further information on the methodological process and to view the interview guides, see Annex 1.

In this work, we employed Elinor Ostrom’s theory of the commons (1990) to structure the analysis of the conducted interviews, keeping in line with other research on CWS in Colombia (Delgado-Serrano et al., 2017; Soto-Vallejo et al., 2020; Osorio, 2021). The management of the commons expresses the possibility of developing a collective management of resources that can be environmentally sustainable in the long term. Ostrom (1990) points out eight principles:

Community water supply systems have become key scenarios for analyzing self-governance and sustainability capacity from Elinor Ostrom’s theoretical framework. These systems manage to collectively manage a common resource by applying design principles that promote collective action, trust and cooperation. Participatory decision-making, for example, has proven to be a key factor in strengthening social cohesion and a sense of belonging, as demonstrated by community organizations in Janiuay, Philippines (Salazar, 2025). Similarly, the establishment of collective choice agreements and mechanisms for oversight, sanctions, and conflict resolution has been crucial to ensuring long-term stability, as documented in Faisalabad, Pakistan (Altaf and Goetzke, 2025). These cases demonstrate that the sustainability of systems depends not only on formal structures but also on inclusive processes that enhance the legitimacy of community governance.

Another important aspect highlighted by Ostrom is the need for a balance between community self-management and external support. In Uganda, for example, the success of community water systems has been conditioned by the presence of organizational characteristics aligned with design principles (Naiga, 2018). Added to this is the role of social capital as a driver of effective management, as shared interests and community commitment have contributed to the construction of identity and cohesion, as observed in local experiences in Slovenia (Pipan et al., 2023). Finally, adaptive governance is a central element, as it allows formal and informal rules to be adjusted to changing contexts. This has been evident in irrigation communities in southern India, where the effectiveness of Ostrom’s principles depends on specific biophysical and social attributes (Vallury et al., 2022). Taken together, these experiences confirm that community self-governance can be sustained over time when it articulates institutional structures, social capital, and adaptive mechanisms, although its success remains highly dependent on context (Saldaña Almazán et al., 2025; Tsuyuguchi et al., 2020).

In general, analyses of community-based water supply systems grounded in Ostrom’s theoretical framework highlight the capacity of communities to self-organize, establish their own rules, and sustainably manage common-pool resources, thus avoiding the “tragedy of the commons.” In Colombia, studies on these systems emphasize participatory governance, where local organizations take collective responsibility for resource management, strengthening democratic processes and challenging privatization models (Llano-Arias, 2015; Perera, 2015). Some studies focus on polycentric governance contexts, in which multiple actors—community-based, state, and private—interact, fostering resilience and promoting sustainability (De Luque-Villa and González-Méndez, 2022). Others argue that community-based systems have become spaces for social mobilization and political participation, contributing to peacebuilding in regions historically affected by armed conflict (Llano-Arias, 2015; Perera, 2015). Educational strategies and collective action initiatives have also been implemented to strengthen cooperation, equitable distribution, and community cohesion (Bernal-Escobar et al., 2025). These systems are also at the forefront of advocacy for socio-environmental recognition and justice, promoting water as a common good and a human right (Blanco-Moreno and Peña-Varón, 2023), while applying principles of sustainable management that help mitigate tensions arising from scarcity. Despite these advances, previous findings indicate that organizational weaknesses and regulatory constraints persist, underscoring the need to strengthen local capacities and integrate these models into national and international water governance policies, thereby maximizing their potential in the sustainable management of common-pool resources (Furlong et al., 2018; Soto-Vallejo et al., 2020; De Luque-Villa and González-Méndez, 2022).

The results obtained using the methodology presented above are presented below. For details on the interviewees, refer to Annex 2.

This study of four Community Water Supply Systems (CWS) in the upper Guarinó River basin highlights that the difficulties faced by rural water systems in Colombia cannot be reduced to technical or managerial shortcomings. Problems such as declining water quality, environmental degradation, limited financial and technical capacity, and weak institutional recognition are closely connected to broader patterns of territorial inequality and to governance frameworks that place growing responsibilities on rural communities without providing adequate support.

In a national context where CWS supply nearly 40% of rural water services, community management should be understood primarily as a practical response to persistent gaps in state provision, rather than as a voluntary or alternative governance choice. The obligation for CWS to comply with regulatory standards originally designed for large-scale providers creates significant operational challenges and, in some cases, threatens their sustainability. In the Guarinó basin, water scarcity and contamination are better explained by hydrosocial dynamics (such as land-use change, agricultural expansion, and uneven territorial control) than by deficiencies in local management alone.

While community participation is often presented as a defining strength of CWS, the empirical findings reveal internal inequalities. Women, in particular, play a central role in both the daily operation and political management of water systems, often under conditions of work overload and limited institutional support. At the same time, processes of formalization intended to improve accountability may introduce new barriers to participation.

Policy approaches that focus mainly on technical assistance or managerial capacity risk overlooking these broader social and institutional dynamics. Strengthening community water systems therefore requires greater coherence between regulatory frameworks and the social, territorial, and organizational realities of rural communities. Legal recognition and institutional support should aim to reinforce the collective capacities and relative autonomy of CWS, rather than integrating them uncritically into standardized service provision models.

This study relied primarily on semi-structured interviews and document analysis within a small and geographically localized sample in the upper Guarinó basin, which limits the broader generalizability of the findings. Moreover, while gender dynamics in water governance emerged as an important analytical dimension, the study did not examine how class and ethnicity, in intersection with gender, shape participation, access to decision-making, and power relations within CWS. This constitutes an important limitation of the research, but also points to a critical avenue for future research. Understanding how socio-economic differentiation and ethnic identities intersect with gendered responsibilities could provide deeper insight into inequalities embedded in community water governance.

Future research should therefore expand geographically to include the middle and lower sections of the Guarinó River basin, enabling comparative analysis of water governance across the watershed. Additionally, incorporating participatory methodologies (such as community mapping, focus groups, and collective dialogues) would allow for a more nuanced exploration of intersecting social dimensions and help amplify marginalized voices. Finally, the integration of geospatial analysis and remote sensing techniques could provide robust evidence of land-use change, deforestation dynamics, and infrastructure distribution, thereby strengthening the empirical link between environmental conditions and water service provision outcomes.