Contact: Yanina Budkin (54-11) 4316-9724
ybudkin@worldbank.org
Christopher Neal (202) 473-7229
e-mail:
Cneal1@worldbank.org
Montevideo, May 23, 2003 — The governments of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay, together with the World Bank, the Organization of American States, and the Global Environment Facility today inaugurated the Guaraní Aquifer System Project. The event brings together decision-makers from the four countries and representatives from civil society and academia to the first technical seminar on the Guaraní Aquifer System Project.
The $27.24 million Guaraní Aquifer System Project, which includes a $13.4 million Global Environment Facility grant, will assist Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay to jointly elaborate and implement a common institutional and technical framework for the management and preservation of the Guaraní Aquifer System. This trans-boundary aquifer system underlies the four countries and has a total surface extension of 1.2 million square kilometers, constituting a strategic freshwater resource in the southern cone.
This is the first time in South America that a group of countries takes preventive action to protect a transboundary groundwater resource. “That these four countries have recognized the need to preserve the aquifer is already a step in the right direction. It is a historic act for them to have agreed to do this before a water crisis emerges.” said Axel van Trotsenburg, World Bank Country Director for Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay and Chile.
About 15 million people live in the Guaraní Aquifer System region. While not all of these are supplied with Guaraní Aquifer waters, increasing numbers are expected to use this resource as population grows, along with industrial consumption. In the long term, this project is expected to benefit these populations by helping maintain a sustainable supply of safe water for humans; high-quality water for industry; a sustainable supply of thermal water for tourism, industrial, and municipal uses; and reduced conflict potential due to the use of the Aquifer’s waters in trans-boundary areas.
While water is abundant in the MERCOSUR region, potable water is not necessarily plentiful. Demographic pressures, as well as the pressures of economic growth and the pollution of surface waters, have resulted in increasing demands on the Guaraní Aquifer as a source of drinking water. In São Paulo alone, more than 60 percent of the population (or 5.5 million people), rely on Guaraní waters
Sustainable water management is the basis for sustainable economic and social growth. In the MERCOSUR area, population and industrial growth draw on the available resources, including water.
“At a time when economic growth is sorely needed, the four countries, by preserving the Guaraní Aquifer System, are aiming to ensure that their resource base will be available for regional development and for the benefit of future generations,” said Vinod Thomas, World Bank Country Director for Brazil.
The Guaraní Aquifer Project can have ramifications for other areas of cooperation in the MERCOSUR region, including other environmental issues. Its success can also extend beyond the region and be an example of what can be accomplished through multilateral cooperation.
For more information on the Project visit: http://www.ana.gov.br/guarani/
For more information on the World Bank’s work on water in Brazil visit: http://www.worldbank.org/br
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