Water resources management in Colombia  There is a long and established framework for water resources management in Colombia. The Environment Ministry and up to 33 Regional Authorities (the first one was created in 1954), are in charge of water resources management and policies at the national and regional and watershed level, respectively. Other sectoral ministries are in charge of water demand for energy, water supply and sanitation and water for irrigation. Water resources availability per capita in Colombia was 45,408 cubic meters in 2007, way above the world's average of 8,209 in the same year and is particularly prone to flooding and landslides. Climate change is expected to highly affect highland Andean ecosystems, especially moorlands, due to increase in temperatures and aquifer-based freshwater supplies in insular and coastal areas due to sea level increases and saline intrusion. Despite the developed legal and institutional framework for water resources management in Colombia, many challenges remain, including: (i) the consideration of water as an abundant resource affect the implementation of certain policies; (ii) fragmentation on water resources management responsibilities and lack of a consistent national strategy; (iii) some lack of coordination between the Environmental Ministry and the Regional Authorities; (iv) lack of capacities at the regional level; (v) governability challenges due to social and environmental issues such as deforestation, illegal crops, urban sprawl…etc. During the 20th Century, Colombian Government focused on increasing knowledge on natural resources as well as developing law and institutions to regulate their uses. For example, in 1952, the Government created the Division for Natural Resources, under the Environment Ministry, aimed at managing land, forestry and fisheries. In 1953, the Government enacted the Decree 1371, also known as the Sanitation Code, which included general rules to control residual water. In 1954, the Government, following the model based on the Tennessee Valley Authority, established in the US in 1933, created the Cauca Regional Authority with the objective of managing land and water resources in a multisectoral and integrated way. For the next 50 years, up to 33 Regional Authorities (Corporaciones Autonomas Regionales –CARs) will be created all over Colombia each of them representing the highest authority for natural resources management, including water resources, within their territory and being an integral part of the National Environmental System in Colombia. In 1968, the government created the National Institute of Renewable Natural Resources and Environment (INDERENA), encompassing the Division for Natural Resources and the Magdalena and Sinu Regional Authorities. During the 1970s, there was an intense institutional development with the creation of numerous sectoral entities such as the Meteorological Service in charge of analyzing meteorological and hydrological data, the Geographic Institute Agustin Godazzi in charge of land management, INGEOMINAS in charge of groundwater resources management, and Colombian Agricultural Institute in charge of assessing the environmental impacts of fertilizers and pesticides, among others.