An international project will promote the integration of eight different countries in the Amazon Basin region in the quest for joint management of water resources.
The Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization (OTCA) will be the regional executor of the project “Integrated and Sustainable Management of Cross-Border Water Resources in the Amazon River Basin.”
Initially, the project will receive US$ 700 thousand from the Global Environment Facility (GEF), as approved in May of this year.
The funds will be administered by the Organization of American States (OAS), and the project will receive technical support from the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) and cooperation from national institutions in the region.
According to the secretary-general of the OTCA, Rosalia Arteaga Serrano, the purpose of the initiative is to draft a proposal for a water management model in the Amazon.
She explains that it is necessary to establish guidelines for joint preventive actions to identify the chief problems affecting the Amazon Basin.
Moreover, she points out, the project is important in the search for joint solutions that favor the process of economic, social, and environmentally sustainable development in the region. The preparation of the project will get underway soon and should take two years.
In Serrano’s opinion, the signing of the agreement is historically significant, because it marks the first time the eight countries of the Amazon Basin (Brazil, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Peru, Surinam, and Venezuela) will work together on the management of water resources in the region.
“In the first phase, US$ 700 thousand are slated to be transferred, and, in the second, US$ 10 million. We are hopeful that this second parcel of resources for the project will total US$ 30 million,” she comments.
Water is the main natural resource the Amazon has to offer, and the basin as a whole contains approximately 20% of the world’s fresh water supplies.
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