The Relationship of Community Empowerment in the Management of Rural Aqueducts Through the Sustainable Development Goal Sdg-6: A Case Study in Boyacá, Colombia

Objective The objective of this study was to evaluate the relationship of community empowerment in two rural aqueducts in Boyacá - Colombia, considering actions established in Sustainable Development Goal 6 - Clean water and sanitation. The development of practices focused on the care and preservation of water resources in the rural sector is one of the main goals of the national government, therefore, promoting sustainable development in the territories, especially with regard to water care and its environmental and socioeconomic implications, as well as its articulation with international policies such as the SDGs. Materials and Methods The research was carried out with users of two rural water supply associations in Boyacá, Colombia, considering the community empowerment approach and its categories of having, knowing, wanting and being able to, and the goals of SDG 6 on clean water and sanitation. To this end, structured and semi-structured interviews were conducted with users and key actors associated with the two rural water supply associations, the study protocol was approved by the ethics committee of Pedagogical and Technological University of Colombia. Results and Discussion The results obtained revealed [synthesize the main results of the research]. In the discussion section, these results are contextualized in light of the theoretical framework, highlighting the implications and relationships identified. Possible discrepancies and limitations of the study are also considered in this section. Conclusions The results obtained reveal that there are low levels of community empowerment among the key actors and users of the two rural aqueducts, which shows a limited capacity for action regarding the communities' drinking water resources, which reveals future problems associated with the immediate reaction to phenomena such as climate change, generational change, decision-making and drinking water management.