The Otún River (''Río Otún'') is a river in the Risaralda department of

Colombia Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country primarily located in South America with Insular region of Colombia, insular regions in North America. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Caribbean Sea to the north, Venezuel ...

. Its source is Lake Otún, fed by meltwater from Nevado Santa Isabel, and its outlet is the

Cauca River The Cauca River () is a river in Colombia that lies between the Occidental and Central cordilleras. From its headwaters in southwestern Colombia near the city of Popayán, it joins the Magdalena River near Magangué in Bolívar Department, an ...

. The Otún River passes between the cities of Pere ira and

Dosquebradas Dosquebradas () is the second largest city and a municipality in the Risaralda Department, Colombia. , with a population of approximately 225,540 inhabitants. The city is connected by the César Gaviria Trujillo Viaduct to Pereira, the capital ...

, and is crossed at that point by the César Gaviria Trujillo Viaduct, one of the largest

cable-stayed bridge A cable-stayed bridge has one or more ''towers'' (or ''pylons''), from which wire rope, cables support the bridge deck. A distinctive feature are the cables or wikt:stay#Etymology 3, stays, which run directly from the tower to the deck, norm ...

s in South America. The Otún River is the only source of drinking water for Pereira and Dosquebradas. The local water company takes about from the river at a site known as Nuevo Libaré. Agricultural development in that region has affected the quality of the water from the river, with pig and chicken farms as well as human waste water being major sources of bacteriological contamination. The river passes through several protected zones including the Otún Quimbaya Flora and Fauna Sanctuary.

Notes

# Trejos Gómez et al. (2003).

References

Trejos Gómez et al. (2003), "Estrategias para disminuir la contaminacion por organismos bacterianos patogenos, en la fuente abastecedora de agua del acueducto de la ciudad de Pereira", ''Scientia et Technica'', No. 23, 87–92

Universidad Central (2003), "Plan de saneamiento hídrico de Pereira".

Rivers of Colombia Geography of Risaralda Department Pereira, Colombia {{Colombia-river-stub