By Marcela Valente for Ipsnews.netBUENOS AIRES, Nov 21, 2011 (IPS) - Five South American countries have launched a joint sustainable management programme for the Río de la Plata basin, to preserve one of the largest fresh water reserves in the world.
Presidents Cristina Fernández of Argentina, Dilma Rousseff of Brazil, Evo Morales of Bolivia, Fernando Lugo of Paraguay and José Mujica of Uruguay "are making strong efforts for progress, which have allowed the programme to move forwards," Argentine ambassador Mónica Troadello, a political representative on the Intergovernmental Coordinating Committee of La Plata Basin Countries (CIC), told IPS.
Troadello said that whereas formerly it was customary to call in external consultants to study the potential of the resources, nowadays it is technicians from each country's own foreign ministry who are doing this work, with a regional vision.
The new vision also extends to the concept of development. "For decades, development was taken to mean economic productivity, but now the main issue for us is human development," she emphasised.
From this viewpoint, she said, the governments have become aware of the importance of the basin's resources, which include the vast underground Guaraní aquifer, as well as the surface water of its rivers and lakes.
The La Plata basin, which extends over a surface area of 3.1 million square kilometres in five countries, is one of the world's five largest river basins, and the second largest in South America after the... Read Full Article
