fortalecimiento integral de la gestión ambiental en la CAR Chiquinquirá: Cumplimiento normativo, capacitación y apoyo técnico

Abstract

This work was developed within the context of the Chiquinquirá Regional Directorate of the Regional Autonomous Corporation of Cundinamarca (CAR), a key entity in Decentralized Environmental Governance within its jurisdiction, which encompasses the municipalities of Chiquinquirá, Saboyá, San Miguel de Sema, Buena Vista, Ráquira, and Caldas. The internship focused on strengthening the area's technical capacity for managing permitting and sanctioning procedures, acting under the constitutional principle of environmental protection and in compliance with Law 99 of 1993. The main project aligned with the challenges of the Circular Economy and the application of waste regulations, seeking to shift from reactive to preventive oversight based on sound data, in accordance with Institutional Capacity Theory. The core problem addressed was the ineffective application of Resolution MADS 0316 of 2018, which mandates that industrial, commercial, and service sector generators register in the Used Cooking Oil (UCO) Registry. The Regional Autonomous Corporation (CAR) had requested an initial list from the Tunja Chamber of Commerce, which yielded 780 raw registrations. This information, lacking data cleansing, exhibited significant duplication of company names and owner names, rendering it legally unusable for formal notification and subsequent enforcement. This data inconsistency hampered the efficiency of the sanctioning process, limiting the CAR's ability to exercise its environmental policing function and control over a pollutant with a high ecotoxicological impact on water bodies and the sewage system. The solution was implemented through a rigorous data cleansing and verification methodology, conceptually framed within the principles of Uniqueness and Validity. The Regional Autonomous Corporation's Geographic Information System (GIS) was used. The process involved iteratively cross-referencing the initial 780 records with the official database of the Single Business and Social Registry (RUES), using ISIC codes as a decisive filter to identify activities that generate or manage waste. This methodological approach transformed scattered business information into legally valid evidence, culminating in the consolidation of a definitive list of 449 unique and verified users. The results obtained are twofold and significant. First, the registration of the 447 vetted users in the SIDCAR database was achieved, establishing the precise platform for evidence-based oversight. This census serves as the basis for the formal distribution of notification letters that disseminate Resolution 0316 of 2018, activating the environmental co-responsibility of waste generators and promoting regulatory compliance. Secondly, the technical support provided to the area allowed for the optimization of the management of sanctioning procedures, as demonstrated in complex cases of atmospheric emissions without a permit (coking and mate factories in Ráquira), shortening response times and issuing solid technical opinions that protected the legal validity of the Corporation's actions.