Lina Zapata

Lina Zapata is a Research Assistant with the Water Team at SEI Latin America. She holds a degree in Social Work with a focus on Social Management from Universidad Libre, Pereira campus. She has additional training in capacity building for water conflict management (SAVIA Training School – Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development of Colombia) and in Integrity, Transparency, and Anti-Corruption (Public Function Department).

Lina has professional experience at the Regional Autonomous Corporation of Risaralda (CARDER), where she contributed to implementing water governance strategies with leaders and users of rural community aqueducts, as well as in outreach and awareness processes related to the demarcation of buffer zones along water bodies.

She has supported strategies for the identification, characterization, prioritization, dialogue, and systematization of socio-environmental conflicts among stakeholders and users of rural aqueducts in Risaralda, within the framework of Colombia’s National Policy for the Integrated Management of Water Resources (PNGIRH). In addition, she has led activities focused on citizen participation, water culture, and environmental education.

Her professional and personal interests lie in contributing to social transformation and the integral development of communities, promoting sustainable water management, strengthening social fabric, and fostering the collective construction of more equitable and resilient territories.