Colin Herron

Senior Water Resources Management Specialist, Water Solutions for the SDGs

International water expert, currently based in Stockholm, Sweden, in charge of the Global Water Partnership's (GWP) Water Solutions for the Sustainable Development Goals (WS4SDGs) programme, supporting countries to mainstream Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) in their development objectives.

Previously worked as the Water Security Director for The Nature Conservancy for Mexico and Northern Central America; as an advisor on water issues for the governments of Mexico, Turkey and Japan; as well as for international organizations such as the World Water Council, the World Bank, the World Meteorological Organization and the International Union for Conservation of Nature. Some career highlights:
• Leading the feasibility study, design, creation and initial operation of the Mexico City Water Fund, on behalf of the Latin American Water Funds Partnership, a 13-million-dollar project, which has provided a new template for Water Funds;
• Coordinating the design and implementation of the Water Replenishment strategy and projects in Guatemala and Mexico, compensating for the water consumption of Coca Cola, Heineken and PepsiCo, with a 6-million-dollar investment;
• Spearheading the Mexican government strategy which successfully inserted water issues under the United Nations’ Framework Convention on Climate Change’s Nairobi Work Programme;
• Coordinating a 1-million Euro project between the World Water Council and the Turkish government to foster stakeholder participation and knowledge sharing in the preparation and follow up of the 5th World Water Forum (the Virtual Meeting Space).

Colin has facilitated multi-stakeholder cooperation focusing on the interaction between water resources, climate change, environmental protection and sustainable human development, from technical, organizational, communicative and governance perspectives. Perfectly trilingual (English, Spanish and French), his background as a linguist with subsequent technical training in water resources management and climate change has given him a highly analytical view of progress in water resources management over the last 20 years. He has a master's degree in IWRM from the Mexican Water Technology Institute, with a summa cum laude, being the only student up to now to achieve a perfect 10.0 average score.

Pipes and power

The fallacy of the water "sector" in water resources management

Water is central to the achievement of all the SDGs and should be viewed as crosscutting, not a sector. The water community should venture beyond its comfort zone and work with other water-related sectors. The SDG6 IWRM Support Program helps countries to use water as a connector between their SDG targets.

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