Water Recycling, and Financing to Match Local Ambition
Photo credit: Mayor Castro Facebook page.
Speaking last month at an event co-convened by C40 Cities and the Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate & Energy, Mayor Claudio Castro of Renca, Chile, discussed his city’s project to reroute industrial water from the sewer system into the irrigation for a new urban park.
“In Renca, we did not wait for international finance to solve our climate crisis. We chose to act: we transformed treated industrial water, previously discharged into the sewer system, into a self-sufficient irrigation network for an urban park that will become a major green lung for the entire Metropolitan Region of Santiago.
“This project will allow us to quadruple our green space per capita and is expected to reduce temperatures by up to 4°C. We have advanced this through a public-private partnership, with strong municipal leadership and local innovation. And the results are clear: for every dollar invested in the Parque Metropolitano Cerros de Renca irrigation system, we estimate a return of 26 dollars.
“This shows that climate action is not only a social imperative, but also an investment opportunity. That is why our call is to move forward together. If cities like Renca are already developing concrete solutions with proven impact and returns, it is essential that national governments and international financial institutions continue strengthening the conditions that enable more cities to access this kind of financing. Local ambition is there; the challenge is to keep building a financial architecture that can match it.”
