Colombia's Largest Aqueduct Nears Completion, Set to Bring Round-the-Clock Water to 1.6 Million

Freitag, 25. September 2026

In Colombia's Atlántico department, the Acueducto Regional del Norte — described by regional officials as the largest aqueduct project under construction in the country — has reached roughly 94% completion and is entering its final construction phase, according to the Atlántico governor's office and reporting from El Tiempo. The roughly 200-billion-peso project is designed to deliver continuous, 24-hour drinking water to more than 1.6 million residents across eight municipalities: Barranquilla, Soledad, Galapa, Puerto Colombia, Tubará, Usiacurí, Juan de Acosta, and Piojó.

The project includes 14 additional kilometers of new pipeline and two 700-cubic-meter storage tanks intended to stabilize water pressure across the northern corridor of the department. Governor Elsa Noguera has framed the aqueduct as a long-term solution to intermittent service that has affected communities north of Barranquilla, saying continuous drinking water would become "a reality" for the department's residents once the system is fully operational. Officials expect civil works to be finished by the end of 2026, with testing and startup of the system to follow.

The Colombian project stands out against a broader, more strained picture of water security across Latin America this month. In Mexico, more than half the municipalities in the state of Tamaulipas — 27 in total — are experiencing water access problems as of early September, according to regional reporting, prompting renewed investment in water treatment, desalination, and solar-powered pumping infrastructure for the country's northwest. In Brazil's drought-prone northeast, one of the region's most significant water transfer projects has reached 92% physical progress after extending the reach of water drawn from the São Francisco River by an additional 15 kilometers, continuing a multi-year effort to improve access in historically drought-affected areas.

Chile, meanwhile, continues to expand its use of desalinated seawater to meet the needs of its mining sector, a shift driven by falling groundwater availability in the country's arid north. And in Puerto Rico, despite recent rainfall, water levels in the Carraízo and La Plata reservoirs remain too low to lift rationing measures that have been in place across parts of the island.

Taken together, the region's water news this month reflects two parallel tracks: large public infrastructure investments — like Colombia's northern aqueduct — nearing completion after years of construction, set against persistent, weather-driven shortages in Mexico, Puerto Rico, and elsewhere that underscore how uneven water security remains across Latin America.