Integrated Development of the River Paute Basin

Four year project

Multi-million pound project

Government of Ecuador and European Commission

200 staff months of expertise in socio-economics; rural development; civil engineering; environmental assessment; SMEs; monitoring and evaluation; training and public awareness.

The project contributed to the reduction of poverty, the slowing of environmental decline and the improvement of living conditions for the population of the Paute River Basin area.

Through the framework of the Basin Master Plan, this four-year project aimed to create a viable socio-economic process in the rural areas through the introduction of sustainable production practices, the improvement of social services, and by lessening the vulnerability towards hydro-geological risks.

The project has helped to optimise development of the Basin through the creation and operation of a Basin Authority that coordinates the interventions, both from the public and private sectors. In order to achieve its long-term objectives and ensure its sustainability, the project acted as facilitator and stimulator of socio-economic development by promoting, whenever possible, the implementation of activities through existing organisations (municipalities, NGOs, community-based organisations) with whom direct agreements were established. The project also promoted participation of beneficiary communities in order to obtain viability, sustainability and technically acceptable results.

HTSPE and consortium partners provided support in “key development” activities identified, including:

• training rural communities in agriculture/livestock production, environment, SMEs and other fields of activity;
• rehabilitation and construction of physical and social infrastructures;
• monitoring and control of hydrogeological risk;
• training of staff and environmental public awareness;
• technical assistance and support to the “Paute Basin Authority”;
• compiling technical and socio-economic information for the Basin area and assessment of the Basin’s development potential;
• implementation of health programmes and rehabilitation/construction of rural clinics and health centres;
• monitoring and evaluation to measure the impact of the project within the target population and Basin area; and
• supporting the initiatives of the local population groups in co-financing small-scale socio-economic projects.