Navigating Colombia Rivers with WhatsApp is a knowledge exchange and communication project that co-creates multimedia content for mobile devices. It brings together academic researchers, riverine leaders, and communication experts to design digital stories about the water-energy-food nexus in Colombia’s most important river basin, the Magdalena-Cauca.
In this basin, which accounts for around 70% of the nation’s electricity demand, local knowledge of river dynamics and hydropower impacts is often marginalized, while scientifi c fi ndings remain inaccessible to those most affected.
In response, our project establishes a Transdisciplinary Editorial Lab (TELab) where researchers, communication professionals, and riverine leaders produce WhatsApp-ready stories, including videos, infographics, and audio messages. The stories translate complex interdisciplinary water research into culturally appropriate formats, relating the fi ndings to fi shing communities’ social and political agendas.
The project promotes horizontal dialogue and values plural epistemologies. It recognizes and actively engages with fi shing knowledge—recently declared Colombian national heritage—and brings it into dialogue with fi ndings about energy systems, water, and climate from the project “Water Security for Whom?” . By leveraging messaging networks, the initiative also aims to strengthen riverine networks and their voices in river governance debates.
Project Team Coordination: Prof. Dr. Tobias Krüger, Dr. Rossella Alba, Laura Betancur Alarcón.
Community partner: Jully Mora ( Corporación Mesa de Pesca del río Sogamoso ). Academic advisory: Camila Jiménez Sáenz and Laura Pulgarín Morales (Pontifi cia Universidad Javeriana); Prof. Dr. Denisse Roca-Servat (INER, Universidad de Antioquia). Communications experts: Prof. Dr. Ginna Morelo and Daniel Morelo, EntreRíos Museo . Research assistants : Kimberly Alejandra Valencia Cardona ( INER, Universidad de Antioquia).
Project Partners
IRI THESys, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (Germany)
Helmholtz Institute for Functional Marine Biodiversity (HIFMB) (Germany)
Corporación Mesa de Pesca del río Sogamoso (Colombia)
EntreRíos Museo (Colombia)
Instituto de Estudios Regionales, Universidad de Antioquia (Colombia)
This project is funded by the Volkswagen Foundation through its ‘Additional Funding for Science Communication’ programme.
LandFoodWaterClimateInfrastructure & Energy
Contact
Tobias Krüger
Director
Email:
Rossella Alba, Dr.
Researcher
Laura Betancur Alarcon
Doctoral Researcher
Email: