page_title: Water supply and sanitation in Colombia
section_title: Public utilities
hierarchical_section_title: Water supply and sanitation in Colombia / Responsibility for water supply and sanitation / Service provision / Urban areas / Public utilities
caption_attribution_description: Edificio Empresas Publicas de Medellín, mas conocido como edificio inteligente, Medellín, Colombia.
context_page_description: Water supply and sanitation in Colombia have been improved in many ways over the past decades. Between 1990 and 2010, access to improved sanitation increased from 67% to 82%, but access to improved water source's increased only slightly from 89% to 94%. In particular, coverage in rural areas lags behind. Furthermore, despite improvements, the quality of water and sanitation services remains inadequate. For example, only 73% of those receiving public services receive water of potable quality and in 2006 only 25% of the wastewater generated in the country underwent any kind of treatment.
context_section_description: Some of Colombia's larger cities are home to well-performing public utilities, some of them providing multiple services, others being specialized in water and sanitation only. The Empresas Públicas de Medellín or Public Companies of Medellín, is a municipally owned multi-sector utility in charge of water supply, sanitation, solid waste management, electricity generation and distribution as well as local telecommunications in Medellín and its surrounding areas.
  Another multi-sector utility is the Empresas Municipales de Cali (Emcali), which provides fixed line local telecoms, Internet, potable water, sewage and electricity services to some 600,000 clients. EMCALI has suffered financially due to onerous payment obligations resulting from a Power Purchase Agreement signed in 1997 with an Independent Power Producer, TermoEmcali.
  The capital of Colombia, Bogotá, is served by a water and sanitation utility, the Empresa de Acueducto y Alcantarillado de Bogotá (EAAB).
caption: The headquarters of Empresas Públicas de Medellín in Medellín.
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