Integrated Management Spells Success for Medellin, Colombia's, Water and Wastewater Utility

Abstract

The city of Medellin is the second largest urban area in Colombia. The state‐owned company, Empresas Públicas de Medellín E.S.P. (EPM), provides water supply and wastewater treatment services to more than 3.5 million people in the city and nine other smaller towns in the conurbation. EPM also provides public services other than water supply and wastewater treatment. Eduardo Cadavid Restrepo, director of the department of water management at EPM, described the current status, challenges, and future plans for the water supply and sanitation system in Medellin in this interview (conducted by e‐mail in Spanish and later translated to English) with Andrea Diaz Osorio and Govindarajan Venkatesh. At the time the interview was conducted, Diaz Osorio was a student in the master's degree program at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) at Trondheim, Norway. Venkatesh is a postdoctoral researcher in the department of hydraulic and environmental engineering, also at NTNU.