PERFIL DA PREPARA

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Argentina
Brazil
Paraguay
Uruguay
The Environmental Protection and Sustainable
Development of the Guarani Aquifer System Project
Luiz Amore Second Biennial GEF International
Waters Conference September 25-29, 2002
Dalian,China
GEF/World Bank/OAS
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Guarani Aquifer System Location and
Characteristics

• Inhabitants in the GAS Region 15 million
• Estimated freshwater reserves and annual
  recharge 40,000 km3 / 166 km3
• Depth of aquifer surface - 1800 m
• Estimated mean thickness 250 m
• Max. tube well capacity 1.000.000 l/h
• Temperatures 33?C -
  85?C
• Area
  1.2 million km2
• maybe the
  largest freshwater
• reserve in the
  world !

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The Guarani Aquifer System Transboundary
Distribution
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Aquifer Uses Available Information to be
evaluated
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Why the need for a Transboundary Project?

• Natural subsurface paths of groundwater flow
  intersect international boundaries(recharge in
  one country and discharge/wells in another)
• Lack of legal/institutional framework for
  transboundary aquifer management

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Why Innovative ?

• First GEF Project on Transboundary Groundwaters
• Aquifer resources perspective (e.g. Energy)
• Preventive project for a strategic resource

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• Status of the aquifer
• Abundance of water in general
• Growing uses
• Scarcity in transboundary and national Hot Spots
• Pollution in transboundary and national Hot
  Spots
• Pollution in recharge areas extent to be
  investigated
• Where to Go ?
• Managing People (Water and Land Uses)
• Managing Water / Aquifer Resources

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Guarani Aquifer System Region Institutional
Background

• Argentina
• Decision making authority over water lies with
  the provinces
• Lack of national water resources law
• Limited information available 9 deep wells,
  undefined GAS western border
• Brazil
• Decision making authority over groundwater lies
  with the states
• Mineral, thermal and bottled water under fed.
  concession regime
• Existence of federal and state laws on water
  resources
• Considerable info available but dispersed 500
  cities partially or entirely supplied by the GAS
• Paraguay
• Unitary country
• Lack of water resources law
• Limited information available 200 wells mainly
  for domestic water supply
• Uruguay
• Unitary country
• Existence of water law and decrees related to the
  GAS
• Considerable info available 135 wells for public
  water supply, irrigation and thermal tourism

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• All Countries
• Transboundary issues under responsibility of
  National Gov.
• Plata Basin Agreement since the 1960ies
• MERCOSUR (South American Common Market) support
• Challenges
• Challenge what kind of treaty in the future?
  Should there be a treaty at all, given that
  management is so decentralized?
• Allocation rules to be developed in Hot Spots?
• Demand management ?

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Special characteristics of Guarani Aquifer System
management

• Several countries
• Decentralized actors in a large area who use the
  aquifer and/or pollute its water
• High costs of monitoring, enforcement and
  sanctions
• Chance to develop a permit system for future
  wells and monitoring of use
• Need risk assessment (vulnerability/pollution) to
  determine management priorities
• Need support from states/provinces and
  municipalities in management implementation big
  challenge

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The Guarani Aquifer System Project

• Objective
• Support Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay
  to jointly elaborate and implement a coordinated
  institutional framework for managing and
  preserving the transboundary Guarani Aquifer
  System for current and future generations.

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The Guarani Aquifer System Project

• Multi-country agreement on the institutional
  and technical framework

• Components
• Expansion and consolidation of the current
  knowledge base of the GAS
• Joint development and implementation of the
  Guarani management framework
• Public participation, education and communication
• Project monitoring and dissemination of results
• Implementation of pilot projects in identified
  Hot Spots
• Assessment of geothermal energy, and
• Project coordination.

• Functioning monitoring network

4-year implementation phase

• Strategic Action Program

• Transboundary Diagnostic Analysis

• Proposal for joint legal framework

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The Guarani Aquifer System Project

• Special features of project design
• Combine diagnostic and assessment with action by
  using a two-track approach
• assess the overall resource
• design and implement local pilot management
  projects in Hot Spots
• Decentralized GIS through webbased interface,
  using focal institutions in each country
• Additional university fund for GAS research and
  training

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The Guarani Aquifer System Project

• Project budget 26.7 million
• GEF 13.4 million
• Country governments 12.1 million
• (IAEA, OAS, German and Dutch Gov., communities)
  1.2 million

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Institutional set-up for implementation
SC
Donors
GEF/WB
Direction
Coordination Group
Operation
GS/OAS
NPEU Paraguay
NPEU Uruguay
NPEU Brazil
NPEU Argentina
Execution
SPEU MG
SPEU MS
SPEU MT
SPEU PR
SPEU RS
SPEU SC
SPEU GO
SPEU SP
Federal Organisms
 
 
 
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Project Preparation Accomplishments a platform
for action

• Cooperation between all four Guarani Aquifer
  countries enhancing steps to regional
  integration Preliminary Aquifer Assessment
• Cooperation between institutions within
  countries, including line ministries, foreign
  affairs ministries, federal/national and
  state/provincial institutions with sustained
  involvement
• Developing basin agreements in Argentina,
  launching of the Brazilian Program on Groundwater
  and implementation of GW acts at
  national/subnational levels in Brazil (3 states
  and 2 national), mobilization towards national
  water resources law in Paraguay, and creation of
  a Thermal Advisory Committee in Uruguay
• Involvement of universities, NGOs, indigenous
  peoples and private sector on information
  dissemination, generating significant awareness
  in society
• Approval of the schematic map of the GAS by the
  SC
• International awareness and support from
  international agencies and donors.

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Lessons Learned

• The institutional arrangements for project
  preparation have proven adequate for stakeholder
  integration in the policy formulation, but
  expectation is still growing
• The nature of the groundwater resource,
  diplomatic complexity, legal weaknesses,
  institutional dispersion and the need for
  systematic technical knowledge turn the Project
  very complex
• The participation process needs transparency,
  adequate financial resources and timing
• Project success depends on the successful
  interaction of different aspects(institutional,
  political, cultural and technical)
• Importance of groundwater resources

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Main Challenges and Opportunities

• Management at the local level, specially due to
  the decentralized nature of the groundwater
  resource and the large area to be covered
• Keeping political and societal momentum going
  although the Guarani Aquifer System is
  invisible and there is no crisis
• Development of an adequate transboundary
  management scheme, with low transaction costs
• Implementing country-oriented GW management
  tools, including financing mechanisms for
  sustainability of investments
• Linkage to MERCOSUR for continuity?

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Responsible National Agencies

• Argentina - Ministerio de Infraestructura y
  Vivienda, Subsecretaría de Recursos Hídricos
  (Water Resouces Subsecretariat) Mr. Víctor
  Pochat (vpochat_at_miv.gov.ar)
• Brazil - Agência Nacional de Águas (National
  Water Agency) Mr. Jerson Kelman
  (kelman_at_ana.gov.br and www.ana.gov.br)
• Paraguay - Dirección General de Protección y
  Conservación de Recursos Hídricos, Secretaria del
  Ambiente (Environment Secretariat) Mr. Celso
  Velázquez (vcelso_at_telesurf.com.py)
• Uruguay - Ministério de Transportes y Obras
  Públicas, Dirección Nacional de Hidrografia
  (National Hydrografy Directory) Mr. Luis Enrique
  Loureiro (dnh_at_uyweb.com.uy)

Main Project Staff

• Organization of American States-General
  Secretariat (International Executing Agency)
  Jorge Rucks (oea_at_oea.com.ar) Roberto Kirchheim
  (rkirchheim_at_oas.org)
• General Secretary of the project Luiz Amore
  (amore_at_tba.com.br)
• World Bank Task Manager Karin Kemper
  (kkemper_at_worldbank.org)

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• thank you
• gracias
• obrigado
• xie xie

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Websites for more information
www.aquiferoguarani.hpg.com.br www.oas.org/usde/g
uarani.htm