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Effective management of water resources represents a priority and essential task to fight poverty, infant mortality and social disparities, promoting improvement in the life quality of the population, particularly in urban areas of developing countries. The Working Group on Urban Water and Human Settlement of the Intergovernmental Hydrological Program for Latin America and the Caribbean (IHP-LAC) was created as part of a regional strategic action plan based on scientific and technical knowledge and the exchange of information and practices. It aims to collaborate in the consolidation of integrated urban water management in Latin American and Caribbean countries. Therefore, it contributes to implement SDG 6, "Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all”. 

In developing countries, approximately 10% to 20%, sometimes more, of the population of medium to large cities live in informal settlements. In many of these countries, urbanisation policies are being developed that seek to guarantee the right to the city to marginalised populations living in slums through property regularisation and policies on housing, formal and environmental education, culture and work. The implementation of urban infrastructure (transport, urban water, energy, infrastructure for education, public safety, communication and health services), due to its structuring character, is a central part of this process.

For urban water management there are significant urbanistic, technical and economic challenges with respect to slums, in particular for stormwater management. Frequent flood and landslide risks have to be dealt with, there are major interferences between built spaces and natural runoff paths, rivers and urban wetlands, as well as precarious wastewater and solid waste management. Often local topographical features, with steep slopes or shallow groundwater depths, are limiting factors for many sustainable urban water management solutions. Successful and unsuccessful experiences constitute a very important knowledge capital for the advancement of urbanisation policies and actions for informal settlements in urban space.

In this webinar organized by the IHP-LAC working group on Urban Water and Human Settlements, with the support of IWA and ABRHidro, experiences and lessons learned in urban water management in informal settlements will be presented. It will also deepen the debate on the challenges and needs for policy development, technical innovations and financing models for the broad socio-environmental integration of informal human settlements in the urban environment.