NL-KVK-27378529-PVW4A20042 Netherlands Enterprise Agency The basins of Río Frío and Río Sevilla of the Magdalena region, Colombia, are home of more than 10,000 ha of banana plantations. Water supply to these plantations is important and at the same time challenging, as the availability of fresh water for irrigation in the dry season is limited, water and soils are threatened by salinization, and because the banana production areas are located between two systems of great ecological and cultural importance (the Ciénaga Grande de Santa Marta and the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta. The objective of this project is to explore alternative water management techniques with a focus on Aquifer Storage and Recovery (ASR), to help improve water resource management in the Río Frío and Río Sevilla watersheds, and to advance sustainable banana production in the area. The idea behind ASR is to store water in the subsurface in the wet season when there is an excess, and use it in the dry season, when water is most needed. The project included a feasibility study of ASR in the banana growing areas of the basins consisting of an indicative cost-benefit analysis to explore the potential of ASR systems, the identification of the most appropriate ASR techniques and the potential areas for their implementation, and the description of the limiting factors that may arise. Several areas in the river basins were found to be suitable for the implementation of ASR systems and particularly of infiltration wells. The main aim of the infiltration wells would be to create an area in the subsurface with higher groundwater quality than the current one, so that banana yields could increase in the dry seasons when mostly groundwater is used for irrigation. This would have in return a positive effect in the river discharges, as less surface fresh water would be used in the dry season. The water balance results show that in the wet season, there is enough water in the basins for infiltration and that this would not affect ecological flows. The cost-benefit analysis showed a positive benefit of implementing ASR infiltration wells in the studied plots, and a positive return of investment. The recommendations for follow up include a water quality study and the installation of an ASR pilot in one of the plots, to locally demonstrate the benefits of these systems. The introduction and upscaling of ASR techniques will contribute to anticipating possible changes of international certification standards including new requirements on good water practices for bananas production, maintaining export markets and, therefore, guaranteeing in turn a more stable and fair income. Netherlands Enterprise Agency Netherlands Enterprise Agency Stichting Deltares 6.2691012 -74.5353699 134909.66 134909.66 Stichting Deltares 31153.91 Stichting Deltares 30438.77 Stichting Deltares 25825.65 Stichting Deltares 34000.36 Stichting Deltares 13490.97 Stichting Deltares 134909.66