CARA
CARA
(Central American Water Resource Management Network)
Member countries:
University members: Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Guatemala and Mexico. New members planned from El Salvador, Honduras, Panama and Cuba. Field projects conducted in all countries of Central America region except Belize
Objectives:
The Central American Water Resource Management Network (CARA) was established by the CIDA funded CARA Project in December 1999, as one of the key project components. The CARA project focuses on establishing masters programs in hydrogeology and water resource management at three partner institutions: the Universidad de Costa Rica (UCR-Costa Rica), Universidad de San Carlos (USAC-Guatemala) and Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Nicaragua (UNAN-Nicaragua). It is led by the University of Calgary (UC – Canada), which administers the project on behalf of CIDA. Many project activities are executed by the University of Waterloo (UW-Canada), which has one of the strongest hydrogeology programs in the world. The strong emphasis on groundwater reflects the greater than 80% dependence on aquifers for water supply throughout the Central American region. After the end of the CARA Project (current CIDA funding), the CARA Network will be sustained by member universities and other Central American stakeholder organizations. The larger objective of the network is to improve the management of Central American water resources with the vision that the Central American universities, public and private and international agencies are addressing water management issues in partnership and within a supportive policy framework.
The specific objectives of the CARA Network are:
- To create high quality MSc programs in the field of integrated water resource management emphasizing hydrogeology at Central American universities.
- Link all the above academic programs to each other and other regional organizations.
- Influence policy/management of Central American water resources through training, workshops, conferences and other national and international level activities.
Outputs:
- Partner Institution (PI) water management training programs have achieved high academic standards within their respective institutions, have excellent reputations nationally and internationally, are attracting increasing numbers of students and collaborators.
- The three PI’s lead a growing regional university network (CARA) that derives its strength from a)internal resource sharing and collaboration and b) growing demand for CARA from regionalstakeholders such as communities, the public and private sector, NGO's, international agenciesand other networks.
- Graduates of PI M.Sc. programs and short course attendees influence water sector policies, plans and practices of their respective countries through solid technical knowledge blendingscience with other various fields of social science, and hands-on field experience emphasizing quality data collection and participatory development.
Documents:
Report 2004 (Click to download)
network activities in 2004
Project components (Click to visit)
CARA activities are divided into seven components
Network Link:
CARA
Sitio web
CARA
Lista de los congresos de CARA
Congreso CARA
Conferencias y actividades del Congreso
Website:
